Short-Term Rental Educator and YouTuber Sean Rakidzich Explains How Airbnb Changed Course with Search Algorithm Overhaul

If you’ve been renting out a sofa, bedroom, guesthouse, or investment property on Airbnb, the world’s number one short-term rental expert, YouTuber, and influencer, Sean Rakidzich, has advice for you.

Airbnb community insiders have been buzzing, thanks to a quietly launched new customer service algorithm introduced last month. Usually, these incorporations leave travelers in a worse situation, but this time, the changes focus on traveler satisfaction as a means of customer retention.

“They are moving away from their former model and are now putting customer satisfaction first. This is a big deal,” said Rakidzich, an Airbnb host with over $10 million in revenue and Founder of Airbnb Automated. “They changed the way that hosts are showing up in searches. You can use this for market research and to target certain demographics of customers in a way that’s never been possible before.”

YouTube’s top rental arbitrage creator was not surprised that the new algorithm update puts guest satisfaction first as he believes Airbnb has been eyeing to steal market shares from hotels since its inception in 2008-09.. But it can help property owners, too, with a little strategic and cognitive thinking.

“Every time Airbnb makes a change, it’s much like any other market force. It’s an opportunity for some hosts to respond and make real-time adjustments to continue to perform well in the space,” said Rakidzich. “I have nearly 1000 students, and we conduct weekly strategy and coaching calls, so we became aware of this change before the more general community. That allowed us to get ahead of other hosts in searches and outperform those hosts for a significant period of time.”

Thankfully, the world’s top mind in short-term rentals has some advice for understanding and harnessing the power of this newly adjusted algorithm.

Research the Market

You can use the new adjustments to conduct market research, but it needs to be done from a computer, not mobile, warned Rakidzich.

He noted that users will now notice new tags on some listings, such as ‘long stay,’ ‘group stay,’ ‘weekend trip,’ and similar entries. “This was the first hint that the algorithm changed,” he said.

“You can use this to find out what other people are making on the long stays, and use that info to take the average from multiple listings and determine what your prices should be,” he said.

To get started, head to Airbnb and search for reservations for a five or six-week stay in five to six months. Next, select an Airbnb listing with a robust number of reviews and scroll down to the reviews section, and you’ll see ‘long stay’ next to some of the top reviews. That’s something new.

Now, search for a reservation just a few months into the future, but for a group of 14-15 people. Look at the reviews again and notice that some of the first page results are labeled ‘group stay.’

“So now Airbnb is not just looking at interest metrics, they are incorporating and this may compound or back-data and market fit to set guests up with the best possible host for their specific kind of stay,” said Rakidzich.

You can use the long trip and group trip algorithm changes to figure out what other hosts are making on certain stays in certain areas. This applies directly to the midterm rentals — when people book for a month or longer – that are becoming more and more popular as well as lucrative.

Understand How Data is Used

So, now Airbnb is using back data to help the guest, in addition to the standalone info they have always used. “The thinking is, ‘This person is searching for a monthly stay. Who do we know that had a good monthly stay and gave a five-star review?’ It’s putting the listings best suited to the customer first, where previously their algorithm was primed for adoption” explained Rakidzich. “This led them to populate search on which listings seemed most interesting in real time. This is why Airbnb has always said, even to this day, that their algorithm is an ‘interest algorithm’.  But I think this is something they’ve quietly changed.”

These properties might not get a lot of interest, high occupancy rates, or even a lot of views, but they do provide great long-term stays or excellent group hosting — exactly what the customer is looking for.

“They’re making these changes for satisfaction. So that guests will come back and continue using the platform,” said Rakidzich.

Reach for First Page Status

What you do for specific types of guests — families, travelers with pets, couples, or people who love hot tubs, for example — is what gets you on the first page of Airbnb search results now. It’s all based on what the customers are searching for.

So, if this theory proves true, you will no longer have to be booked all the time to get on the first page of Airbnb; you just have to be a good host.

Rakidzich says that astute hosts that use this information to improve their listings and search result placement will be in a good position since many hosts — for whom Airbnb is a side hustle, not their main income source — don’t keep up with these sorts of changes at all or have interest in continued education in the space.

With his advice and keen insights, we’ll be looking a lot closer at our Airbnb search results.

About Sean Rakidzich

With over $10 million in revenue generated as an Airbnb host, Sean Rakidzich (previously of Airbnb Automated) is the leading expert, entrepreneur and influencer in short-term rental education and operations on the Internet. He will soon be expanding his teachings beyond just Airbnb to include Peerspace, Turo, VRBO, Booking.com, and more. For more information, please visit rakidzich.com/