15 Ways to Increase Your Airbnb Search Rank In Colombia

4. Lower Your Pricing

At first, this appears to be ‘duh’, but I see so many hosts in Colombia overvalue their homes resulting in abysmal occupancy levels (below 30 percent).

No matter where you are in the world (with few exceptions), if you’re ever below 50 percent occupancy in a month, you’re doing it wrong.

Lower your pricing in increments of 10 percent and wait 7 days to see how it affects your occupancy. Again, the lower your price, the more search results you’ll appear in.

For those hosts starting with really high nightly rates ($200 USD+), you’ll experience the most increase in search rank visibility every $15 USD you lower your rate.

Plus, an Airbnb study put out in early 2017 showed that Airbnb heavily favors lower-priced listings. This makes sense as we know Airbnb’s Smart Pricing keeps hosts’ calendars cheap because the price is one of their greatest advantages over traditional hotels.

5. Relax Your Cancelation Policy

It’s no secret that Airbnb has been pushing a flexible cancellation policy. They have even forced it on some hosts. At a point, they were considering charging hosts 4% and 5% if they selected a moderate or strict cancellation policy, respectively.

Given how much Airbnb has promoted the flexible cancellation policy, it’s plausible they give a boost to listings with flexible cancellation policies. In a recent change to the cancellation policies, Airbnb has said the changes were “to encourage more bookings—especially for more flexible listings.”

In fact, I believe that Airbnb does give a search boost to listings with a flexible cancellation policy, as well as, an additional search rank boost for these same listings if there is a cancellation within 72-hours of check-in.

Inside a VICO property in Medellín, photo courtesy of VICO

6. Add Places of Interest to Your Airbnb Guidebook

Add popular tourist destinations to your guidebook because these locations are searchable within Airbnb. For example, if your property is located near Parque Lleras in Medellín, make sure to include that.

You’ll also show up on the location’s individual webpage on Airbnb. That’s a link pointing to your Airbnb listing from Airbnb.

Does it matter? I’m not sure, but it most definitely doesn’t hurt. Plus, it may lead to an extra booking. After all, if future potential guest is looking at local recommendations, maybe they want to stay in the neighborhood?

7. Add a Self-Checkin Option

First, you need to have a self-check-in option to be a business travel ready listing.

Second, adding this allows you to appear in more search results in Colombia because this is a frequently selected option under amenities filters.

Think about it, after you travel for 24+ hours, do you want someone to greet you and ask you a bunch of questions and show you how different things work in the listing? Probably not. You’d probably like to unwind.

A self checkin option on your Airbnb can be high tech (digital keypad) or low tech with a lockbox. The point is, don’t require your guest to do a meet and greet upon arrival.

If the guest is asking lots of questions during the reservation, you can assume they’ll more likely want someone to meet them at the front door. However, if the guest books a month in advance and you don’t hear from them, probably self checkin is their preference.

Note this may not be needed in many high-rise apartment buildings in Colombia, which have a doorman (porteria), which can do a checkin to get a key.

8. Ensure Your List of Amenities Is Updated

Airbnb adds sections without telling anyone. They did this recently with the ‘People who clean my listing are paid a living wage’ checkbox under “Extra Charges” sub-heading in the Pricing settings:

They basically leave it up to the host to figure it out. Let’s turn this into an advantage by checking regularly and staying ahead of the curve. The most recent amenities added were ‘cleaning products’, ‘safe’, and, of all things, a ‘baking sheet’.

You can easily find this section under the ‘Amenities’ sub-section of the main page to edit your Airbnb listing.

Most of the amenities are not specifically defined, and should be marked off for 99 percent of listings:

• Dedicated workspace – As long as you have some kind of table and a chair
• Private Entrance – As long as the front door to the home is not shared with other people, even if it’s in a building
• Lock on bedroom door
• Internet

Of course, if you are missing some amenities which you believe would make you more competitive in your area, consider purchasing a few extra. How about a ‘sound system’ aka bluetooth speakers?

9. Ensure Your List of Amenities Is Updated

I recommend marking this off if you allow guests to smoke anywhere on the property like a patio, backyard, or rooftop.

Most smokers don’t even smoke inside their home so this is an exception and not the rule anymore.

You can and should clarify in the listing, typically under house rules where it is/is not ok to smoke. Smokers are often aware of these special rules and check for them. Also clarify if the windows should be closed or the smoker should be a certain distance from the home.

Often, especially in apartments, the host requires the guest to step onto the street to smoke. This would be a no-smoking listing, as you need to entirely exit the space to smoke.

Note: This will disqualify your listing from being Business Travel Ready so check to see if you qualify (many listings do not).

10. Add All Home Safety Items

Airbnb wants to mitigate its risk and liability as much as possible. As such, it would make sense for them to give a search boost to listings with all available safety features installed.

In fact, you must have both a smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector to qualify as a Business Travel Ready listing.

11. Speak More Than One Language

A guest is allowed to search by the language the host speaks. This definitely ups your search rank because everyone in the world does not speak/does not prefer to speak English, particularly in Spanish-speaking Colombia.

If you, your significant other, your housemate, etc. speak another language, definitely list it. But only if this person is reasonably available to answer inquiries.

This strategy, again, falls into the realm of making as many selections as possible in order to make your space available to the widest amount of future potential guests.

12. More Airbnb Wishlist Saves

Within each listing, the guest has the option to save your Airbnb listing to their wishlist.

Airbnb recently confirmed that having more wishlist saves positively affects your search rank. This is one of the only things ever said publicly by the company in regards to their search algorithm.

Ask your family/friends to save your listing to their wishlist and share to your social media accounts (Facebook and Twitter) asking the same.

By doing this, you are creating backlinks to your own Airbnb listing, to the Airbnb website, and driving views to your listing. All of this likely results in bonus wishlist saves as more people see your listing.

13. Be a Pet Friendly Airbnb

How many times have you gotten a request from a future potential guest who wants to bring their pet, but your Airbnb clearly says pets are not allowed?

Notice I didn’t ask whether or not you had received this type of inquiry. I don’t need to. I know you have. And I also know the reason why.

Demand for pet friendly Airbnbs in Colombia is small, but the supply is even smaller.

For my math folks, assume demand for a pet friendly Airbnb is only 2 percent of total future potential guests in your city. But if supply is only 1 percent that represents a huge potential opportunity for your bottom line.

I challenge you to rethink why you don’t allow pets and if there are solutions to those worries.

15. Turn a Sofa Into a Bed

Even if it’s not a sleeper sofa, if you include it as a bed within Airbnb, you will appear in more search results and be able to charge more. Obviously, you’ll want to provide a pillow and blankets. That’s the easy way.

The intermediate way is simply upgrading your furniture at the same time adding an additional bed.

15. Be an Event-Ready Airbnb

If at all possible, mark off ‘Suitable for events’. Guests looking to use your space for a photo shoot, etc. will often select this filter.

This option is not as easy as selecting a filter. Guests looking to use your space for an event have different needs that you must cater to.

Remember, you can charge more for commercial uses of your space.

From personal experience, I had a start-up shoot a product on my rooftop and I was able to charge two nights. There were six of them in my home, but only for 3-4 hours and they were all very respectful of my space.

Inside an Airbnb