Wanna know how?

I bet you do, you greedy little lot.

So here’s how 🙂

First up.

OK. First up, we’ve got to establish this; who exactly is your competition?

“Who exactly is your competition?”

To get a rough idea, follow these steps below:

  1. Clear your browsing History and Cookies or use Incognito mode (if you’re not sure what Incognito Mode is, just ask your boyfriend. If he tells you he doesn’t know what it is, he’s lying).
  2. Go to Airbnb.com
  3. Enter your Destination.
  4. Fill in your maximum number of guests.
  5. DO NOT fill in any dates. Repeat… DO NOT fill in any dates!
  6. Hit GO.

Is your listing sitting pretty at the top of the search results? Or is it hiding on the third page?

Depending on the type of your listing, you may need to run another couple of searches for different numbers of guests.

To do this, follow the steps above exactly,  just alter the number of guests at step number 4 for each subsequent search.

OK. So now we have established a rough outline as to who our immediate competition is and also how we rank against them.

So now what?

For God’s sake man, Chill out a minute, will you!

Alright, for the time being, let us not worry about any listings that rank beneath us in the search results, let’s just focus on the ones above us.

What are they doing, that you are not? What are they doing that you could do better?

Here are some of the top things that I look for:

  • What is their featured image like and how does it compare to yours?
  • Do they have a captivating title?
  • How many pictures do they have in their gallery?
  • What is the quality of their images like?
  • Do they have good captions on their images?
  • Is there a good flow to their gallery.
  • What is their introduction like? Is it well written and appealing?
  • How long is their introduction?
  • What amenities do they offer?
  • How many reviews do they have?
  • Do they respond publicly to their reviews?
  • Do they have Super Host Status?
  • What is their response rate?
  • How many views has their listing received in the last week?
  • How many people have saved their listing to a Wishlist?
  • What is their occupancy rate?
  • How much do they charge per night?
  • Have they optimized their prices?

Once you’ve done your homework and gathered some of this data you should now begin to get an idea of how your listing compares to your competition, and what steps you need to take to improve it.

Making improvements to any of the above can have a dramatic effect on your ranking, and your ranking has a huge effect on your bookings.

Did you know that if you rank number 1 on Google you will get 32.5% of the all of the traffic? Number 2 gets 17% and number 10 gets just 2.4%! Did you also know that 92% of all traffic only ever view page 1?

Airbnb’s search pages are very similar, that’s why it’s so important to rank your property at the top of Airbnb’s search results.

More Exposure = More Bookings

If you’d like a way to organize all of this data, you can download my free personal worksheet below.

Once you have gathered all of your data and begin to make the necessary adjustments, keep an eye on your ranking and monitor your progress.  You should begin to see yourself creeping steadily up the rankings over time.

And remember, your increased Airbnb ranking will not only improve your occupancy but will also increase the amounts you can charge per night too.


If you are too damn lazy to carry out any of the above (and I don’t blame you if you are), then you can get a mug like me to do it for you. I don’t take on a huge amount of work like this because I generally have better things to do with my time, so if I’m not laying down the law in the surf and this page is open for booking my services, then go nuts. You could save yourself a lot of time.

Well, that’s a wrap for now. I think I’ve given most (but not all:) of my personal ranking secrets.

If you’ve got anything else to add to the above or have any secrets yourself then chuck it in the comments for all to see. The more the merrier.

Peace out.