SEO for Airbnb Owners

Many owners of Airbnb/VRBO vacation rental homes spend lots of money and time preparing their location for guests, only to discover that their only bookings come from word of mouth recommendations. This happens far less often with locations that have been listed and booked more times, and with hosts that have operated them for longer. Airbnb’s SEO algorithms in their own site database are designed to push well-vetted, popular locations to the top of search results. Knowing how to utilize SEO tactics can help new hosts or owners of less popular vacation homes have their listings featured higher, and subsequently book more guests.

Airbnb recommends many different SEO strategies to boost a listing. A detailed description with keywords is one of the most important, and a complete host profile. All listings also show an amenities list to potential guests, and Airbnb recommends filling this out with keywords as well. 

Additionally, Airbnb gives rank preference to hosts that have a history of a fast response time, positive reviews on their listing, location accuracy between the Airbnb map and Google Maps, and dynamic pricing on the booking page. Hosts that are consistent with these can earn “Superhost” status on their Airbnb profile, which gives a huge boost to their listing visibility. In a search results page on the website, 7 of the first 10 results typically are Superhost owned locations. The main factors in how Airbnb awards this status are how many times an owner’s location has been booked and whether it’s received good reviews, and how “filled out” each of the owner’s listings are on the Airbnb website.

Using these strategies can help hosts better pitch their homes to prospective guests, but it also helps Airbnb users easily find a location they like and navigate the thousands of options available through the site. SEO benefits not only owners of vacation homes, but also any users who are searching to book one.