I have hacked the Airbnb algorithm to
get my listings Over 95% occupied my
listings are performing
26.9% better than my competition and
that is all year round whenever you
create a new Airbnb listing you get an
automatic one month ranking boost yes so
don't be intimidated you have plenty of
time to put into play what you are
learning here on this video so that way
you can increase your occupancy too
Airbnb isn't the only website that has
an algorithm that matters so please like
this video and ask me something in the
comments to help this video perform well
so other people can benefit from this
video first I need to teach you what the
Airbnb algorithm is and that way we can
hack it so first thing you need to know
about the Airbnb algorithm is it's
called an interest algorithm this is
what Airbnb themselves call the
algorithm now it's not a trending
algorithm per se but it is capable of
picking up listings that are trending so
that way it can quickly get them up to
the top so people book them up and fill
their calendars see airbnb's matching
system works by essentially trying to
find out what guests like and showing
them more of what they like because
airbnb's guest experience determines
whether or not they retain on the
platform see Airbnb doesn't just care
about whether or not hosts get booked
they want to make sure that the users on
the platform have the best experience so
there's word of moth marketing and
there's retention so Airbnb will
silently push to the bottom all the
listings that they think aren't really
good for their brand right you can still
get found on map view and you dig deep
enough you can find almost any listing
on the platform but Airbnb at the very
front on the first page of search and on
their homepage they want to push all
this stuff that looks the best and so in
order for you to hack the algorithm you
need to understand what airbnb's motives
are as a company and start to give them
more of what they want and here's how we
can pull it off so what is the algorithm
looking for there are four main
categories we can control out of the
hundreds of little things that they look
for there are four main categories that
you should be focused on the first of
the four is occupancy now if you're
nearly 100% occupied Airbnb doesn't need
to understand why they just need to know
that you are nearly 100% occupied all
the time so they make the assumption
that you're listing is popular and they
will push it more based on occupancy
alone this even is like you could say um
noted in your Airbnb profile if you stay
over 90% occupied down at the bottom
below the calendar it'll say rare find
you know this listing is very rarely
available so book it now kind of thing
so they put these call to actions in
there for you if you're like tend to be
fully occupied one hack for this that we
don't plan on like deep diving in on
this video is pricing strategy if you do
good Dynamic pricing you can get near
100% occupancy by changing your price
and Airbnb will go hey cool you're
popular number two is views this is
probably the most commonly known one the
more you get clicked on the more your
profile is loaded the more Airbnb
assumes interest right you are
interested enough in the thumbnail and
the title to click on it and that is
interest so Airbnb will bump your
ranking up based on clicks just total
views per month is going to be a number
and we're going to teach you how to hack
this to three is hang time once somebody
clicks on your listing how much time are
they spending on your listing this is
actually important it's almost just like
the Instagram algorithm where you scroll
and you stop on a photo Instagram
Twitter all these social media companies
know exactly how much time you're
spending at a certain point on your
phone so if you're looking at one photo
even though you didn't like it or engage
with it they still know that you liked
it because you stopped to look at it for
an extended period of time and Airbnb
tracks the same thing now we're not
going to talk about things like
conversion percentage like how
frequently somebody books after they
view you this isn't actually something
that we can really quantify it is a
metric but I think it's a small one and
the reason why is it's pretty darn
complex if your calendar is always full
it's kind of impossible to get booked
right so your conversion percentage goes
down the more your the calendar gets
full so Airbnb has to make a trade-off
here they prefer to see that you're 100%
booked as opposed to having like a high
conversion percentage so that is a myth
as far as what's most important but
let's get on to number four number four
is reviews see there's this backend Loop
that Airbnb checks on to make sure that
your guests actually liked their stay
because you could perform really well in
the front end beautiful space your
copyrighting is good all the stuff that
we'll talk about here it goes well but
then after a guest stays they weren't
happy they weren't satisfied you didn't
run a good business and your negative
reviews or your suboptimal reviews airb
be will say well hey this is kind of a
liability we like that it's good on the
front end when people scroll that's cool
and all but people aren't enjoying it
and when people don't enjoy their stays
they're less likely to rebook on Airbnb
so this negative feedback loop causes
you to get pushed down in rankings even
though on the front end you did
everything right you still have to run a
good business here's how we hack this in
a future video I'm going to talk to you
about something called booking inertia
super brainy stuff but in this video I'm
just going to give you what you need to
do to accomplish goals here without
getting into the deep why kind of topics
that I typically tend to like go rant on
we're just going to stick to the goods
here step one you need to clickbait
people now I know that sounds a little
illicit but trust me clickbait isn't all
bad you have good offering you need to
find a creative way to Market it and
what clickbait does is it generates
curiosity and curiosity generates clicks
now your title and your thumbnail will
be the two most important parts of
generating this curiosity and one of my
favorite things to do is choosing your
thumbnail photo otherwise known as the
hero photo on arban B you want to click
or you want to choose a photo that
encourages somebody to see the bigger
version of it right so you can have a
beautiful photo like wow that's super
pretty but you should always have a
detail in that shot that people want to
see that thing close up for example you
could have something in your shot that
actually has text in it you could say
like a like a piece of artwork that has
some text but because it's so small they
can't quite read what it says and they
just have to know what that thing says
that's a fun one you can use colors like
little accents of red like what's a red
in that photo because when it's small
they don't know if it's an apple sitting
on a countertop or something else so
they'll actually click to enlarge things
that just seem too pixelated and small
from far away the title I don't
typically use click baity call to
actions like check this space out or
anything like that but I will say some
things like you know king bed I'll
always put a king bed in mypace and I'll
write that as a king bed Suite um with
you know fast Wi-Fi and things I try to
put a bunch of benefits in the title
instead of saying like check this out
you won't believe this like we're not
trying to get somebody to click on an
article so you don't do the cliche
clickbait bait like called actions in
the title but you should list things
that people go oh I want a place with
that stuff right so the title's really
great for that king bed Suite uh free
parking and fast Wi-Fi are great ways to
to put your like stuff in the title that
people can see some key benefits that
they go oh that's great free parking let
me click on that now it's important that
you focus on competitive amenities when
you do list out that description or the
title because if everybody offers free
parking in the neighborhood then putting
free parking isn't really special but if
you have a gym and no one else has a gym
then you should be putting that you have
a gym in your title right competitive or
more rare amenities go great in the
title and of course I always list king
bed for example because there's no
search toggle for king bed on Airbnb
still can't believe it but they still
don't allow you to search like that so
you have to put it in the title if you
want people to to know cuz you're taking
a photo of a bed doesn't say oh this is
a king right that's kind of hard to do
through photo step two is the engineer
occupancy now I mean like the total
number of guests that you can sleep we
have studio apartments that you know can
sleep with a king bed and then there's
like a sleeper sofa or just a really
comfy couch and that's like three but
then we put a rollway bed and that makes
it four like one of those Smile Back
rollway beds or with a sleeper sofa
that's five we don't expect people to
try to cram five into a space those
rollaway beds are great like if people
have kids and stuff that's typically
what they get used for like if there's
you know small children that you know
they want to give them a bed they pop
this rollway bed out you're not going to
have five guys go book a studio that can
sleep five if one's a couch one and two
are rollway beds and one's a king bed
even though you're advertising that you
can sleep five you tend to not get those
size groups anyway but what it does for
you is makes you pop up more in searches
when a group of four or five is looking
for a place your listing will pop up
even though it's really optimal to sleep
three and people will still click on
your space because your price Point's
probably you know competitive compared
to the larger listings that can easily
sleep them so you get curiosity just in
general you get these clicks so
engineering your guest count actually
helps you get more views this actually
helps when you get into larger listings
let's say you've got a listing that
really comfortably sleeps 10 but you've
made it so it can sleep 12 or 13 now in
that case you might get a group that
doesn't really have the option of any
other good property because when there's
larger properties there's less inventory
available at the larger sizes so if
you've got a good property with like
good reviews and stuff and somebody's
got to sleep on a on a like on a rollway
bed but it's their best option even
considering the roller rollway bed you
probably still will get a booking from a
group that maxes out at 13 Even though
you comfortably sleep 10 because
everything else that sleeps 13 is either
way overpriced or just is a trash
listing in the upper levels this
actually works for collecting more money
on your listing because if you can sleep
13 you will make more money than if you
can sleep 10 in platform searchability
becomes the next most important thing
for getting views which of course is
generating that interest algorithm to
kick up there's something kind of nerdy
I can teach you here it's called a
Boolean search um b o o l e a an
essentially it's an all or nothing
search so when somebody's looking for a
place they're like I want to be
available this 6 days well if you're not
available all 6 days of course they're
not going to show your listing you can't
host them but there's other things like
they want something that's pent friendly
uh with a gym and free parking and they
click all those boxes you might be
available those 6 days but you don't
meet their requirements for free parking
pet friendly you're not going to get
shown and this matters for every little
checkbox that they choose so somebody
wants an on-site washer and dryer you
may have one but you've selected washer
dryer but you didn't select it it was an
on-site washer and dryer now cuz Airbnb
is actually added all these extra little
mini boxes um in their ameni section
like all the weirdest stuff they want to
know if you have the the kitchen stuff
so you may have kitchen utensils and and
everything you need to cook with but you
haven't gone and updated your listing to
check that box that you have a full
kitchen right so if somebody clicks
kitchen you might get taken out of
search even though you qualify for that
person because you haven't updated all
those little check boxes so go back
through your listing and make sure that
every single imaginable amenity that you
offer is selected another thing that
helps you get more views is to get rid
of your minimum night stay and instead
offset that with pricing now to really
understand the science of this go back
and watch my pricing strategy video the
most recent one that I've done so you
can understand how to offset your risks
and take advantage of uh customer some
length of stay discounts to do this but
for the sake of this video without
getting too brainy if you have a 3-day
minimum right and you make it so that
way people can't search you for one or
two days you're just not going to pop up
in a lot of searches right and this is
actually going to take your view
countdown which then pushes your ranking
down which is no fun but if you have a
one night minimum where the place is way
too expensive and people are not going
to book it because you doubled the price
for a single night's day you still pop
up in single night searches right which
still gives you the chance of getting a
view when when people see your listings
they they think that your image is
awesome and your title is awesome they
click it just to see what your expensive
place looks like right so you can do a
good job of marketing your place but
overcharge and then people won't book it
but you still get the hang time in the
view count which is which is super
important so go watch pricing strategy
videos on how to use custom length of
Day discounts so you can double your one
night stay and then give a discount for
two or three nights or something if
that's something you want to try to do
step four let's look at your copywriting
your storytelling ability and your
ability to write everything out in your
description now TR truth of the matter
is six out of 10 guests the first thing
that they do is they flip through photos
we're about to cover this here next but
then people who don't just flip through
photos automatically they will scroll
down scroll down in your listing and
look at your listing and read it so some
best practices for copywriting is you
should storytelling write you should
speak in a way that allows somebody to
kind of like imagine that they are going
to be booking your space um when you
arrive you will find this and um you'll
experience blank or blank don't say this
listing has this this listing has this
this listing has as this use the words
like you will experience and you will
see and you will feel right you we're
we're talking about sensory inputs here
and using the word you to really speak
to the customer that's reading your
stuff that's enough that I think you
need to know in this video about
storytelling best practices because
that'll cause people to continue to read
which will increase their hang time and
it might actually increase your
conversion because people are like you
know what I like this this sounds good
I'm going to book it so this drives up
bookings as well as your hang time now
that means you also need to clean up the
way that you write your sentences you
need to make sure you have good grammar
you don't have all these runon sentences
where you use a bunch of like really
junky filler words and you just have one
big block paragraph that's like 2,000
words and that's the whole description
it's just one big block of a paragraph
you need to clean that up um there are
ways that people tend to read and view
things so spacing out your copywriting I
think there's something called the F
pattern with the way that people read
and then there's also the Z pattern
which is more for graphics but if you
understand how people tend to read and
Skip down and read and Skip down you can
create spacings to make sure that you
accentuate certain key things that you
want people to know without like
overwhelming them with this big Forest
of verbiage and in your description you
should be including like your amenities
and your benefits and do it in a bullet
point format I like to say included with
this space colon and then down below
I'll say free parking fast Wi-Fi smart
TV with Disney plus Netflix Amazon Prime
you know HBO Max coffee with decaf and
tea and I just bullet point everything
every single thing out that I think
somebody will enjoy and doing it in a
bullet point format helps you make what
looks like to be a big stack of
amenities and benefits that are awesome
because a lot of people don't ever click
that amenities button tab thing when
they search through a listing Airbnb
does offer this like graphic where you
can click on amenities and it'll map it
all out but people don't tend to
interact with that button so but they
will read the description so if you
bullet point out make a whole big stack
of like all the amenities in your
description that really helps push the
sale and then calls to action you should
have multiple calls to action within
your copywriting where you say book this
place you really actually literally say
book this place um come stay with us
we'll be happy to have you and you can
even embed it when you stay like you you
can say soft things like that too but
you need to create calls to action where
people think in their brain I'm going to
book this place and you can really
influence that in the way that you do
your copywriting so don't just describe
your place but include you know
assumptive sentences like that when you
wake up that's part of your storytelling
but then include those called to actions
like book today you know kind of stuff
step five you need to Glam up that
listing and that's largely done with the
photos what one thing is that causes
people not to book and this will go in
the booking inertia video is you can
have too many photos or too many similar
photos that'll cause people to not book
or you can take photos of things that
you think are important but the photo
just doesn't look good see there's a
concept of overselling here that you
have to be careful for um if you can
take a photo of your washer and dryer
but your washer and dryer is like old
and kind of looks janky and you don't
have good Lighting in that area and you
just take this photo that just kind of
looks dark and weird it doesn't fit with
your whole photo reel don't put that in
there um don't take a photo of your pots
and pens underneath the cabinets with
the doors open that just that doesn't
really fit does it and that photo is
going to be hard to get good lighting
it's going to look cluttered down there
so don't do that either instead stage
your home put the pots and pans on the
stove put a cutting board out put a
knife on The Cutting Board um stage your
coffee station so they can see the
coffee and the decaf and the tea you put
that whole thing in playhous there set
your table with plates cups bowls wine
glasses you know put a bottle of wine on
the photo and just you know even use
place mats and stuff set the whole place
as if somebody's ready to like stay in
it and then have the photos taken you
don't have to take them yourself you can
have a professional do it but if you do
take them yourself use HDR do bracketing
photos and I have a photography
masterclass video you can go back and
watch that you just want to make sure
that your photos are nice and bright um
and welcoming very much like like home
and garden kind of style um which of
course let me just show you some photos
as we're talking about this of photos
that look great money shots are going to
be like wonderful photos that could all
be your hero photo could all be your
thumbnail photo you want five thumbnail
worthy photos and they become the first
five photos the reason why is when
somebody's on desktop they see one photo
they click on you they open up your like
they open up your listing and boom
you're on the desktop now five photos
are showing the first one that they saw
but then they see four more to the right
now if they don't go flip through your
photo reel and start to read the
description and go up and go down and
just forget to click on your photo reel
you want those five photos to do a
sufficient job of selling your space
they need to be five diverse photos of
all the stuff that's wonderful about
your property so let's say you have a
four-bedroom house with this big living
room that's got like two stories and
stuff you that's one great photo let's
say you've got a kitchen with an island
and like all the pots and pans anyone
would ever need you need a glamour shot
of the kitchen let's say your backyard
is done up where you got like a gazebo
and everything looks good do a Twilight
hour shot and Twilight hour is where the
sun is low enough where it's like gone
that you can see the stars but there's
still enough ambient light that you can
get a good like like picture of the
house or the backyard Twilight photos
are probably the best performing photos
for Selling Houses when you put them on
the market so you might as well get a
Twilight photo outside if you're going
to put it on your short-term rental
other ones that you can put are like
competitive amenities if you got one of
a hot tub if you got one with your gym
um you could do nearby attractions if
you don't have enough photos of say like
your studio apart for example um you can
go do nearby attractions so if you're in
Philadelphia and you got a studio
apartment that's near the Rocky Steps we
then do some photos of your space but on
the first five photos right you're still
going to put like here's the king bed it
looks so awesome here's our kitchen and
stuff so awesome here's the Rocky Steps
so awesome right you can put stuff
that's not inside your literal listing
as one of those um diverse photos that
makes people like what they see now by
using these techniques you're going to
get more clicks on your listing and you
get people hanging out on your listing
reading the great stories that you're
telling and flipping through all your
fun photos those and really enjoying
your listing which is cool which means
they might even wish list it or share it
which those things H happen to have an
effect too but even more importantly the
the way that you did not oversell your
listing by not having too many photos
and and having good calls to action in
your listing you're going to get those
conversions you're going to get people
booking now all of that will feed back
into the front end and Airbnb will go
people are interested this is going well
right and then is before you even get
one review like you can have 10 days 12
days of positive feedback before you
even get your first review on Airbnb and
this will push your listing up and up
and up in the rankings now the only
thing I have to put on your shoulders
now is to make sure you do get the good
review be a good host be good to your
guests care about them and serve them
well and you'll get the festar reviews
now if you want to learn more about how
to Airbnb including how to be a good
Host this YouTube channel has everything
you need to know every single topic
you've ever wanted to know about how to
run an Airbnb business is right here
including what kind of messages to send
guests things that guests care about
amenities that they will like products
that you should leave out there that
they'll use how to handle weird
situations like even if a guest doesn't
check out time like how to handle that
kind of stuff so again please like this
video and in the comments leave me a
question or a request for another video
I'll be here for you thank you so much
and I'll see you on the other
side