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Post by High Priestess on Oct 14, 2016 17:16:51 GMT
Here's a tidbit shared by Glenn, the Founder of the New Hosts Forum on the old Airbnb groups, in his class at the "first" Airbnb Open in San Francisco -- you can effect how your listing shows up in search results, by your use of Guidebook. If you want your listing to show up higher in search results for a particular city, you can get that to happen by loading into the guidebook, more businesses with locations closest to the center of that city as indicated on Google. To find the City Center as given by Google: Go to Google Maps, at maps.google.com/ Now for instance, let's look for city center for Chicago Illinois. First, I ask to get directions to Chicago (not a particular place in Chicago, just to Chicago) from another place in the nation....such as Airbnb Headquarters in San Francisco. Then I click on the last leg of those directions, and I am being directed to a specific street intersection, which Google maps has as the location of "chicago". See the photo here which shows what Google determines to the be center of Chicago...which is the intersection of West Jackson Blvd and South Federal Street.  So then, if you want to manipulate search results so that you are higher up in Chicago Search Results, just put in your guidebook as many businesses or entities with addresses as close to this intersection as possible. Such as the John Marshall Law School , Barnes and Noble, and Chicago Board of Trade building seen in the map. Theoretically, your listing could be pretty far away from the city center -- maybe even in another city or state! -- but you might show up in that city's search results due to GUidebook listings. At least this was all true when Glenn taught the class...
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Post by Maria Lurdes (Milu) on Dec 14, 2016 17:44:23 GMT
I did a search to re-find this and I'm so glad for this reference. I am totally dead right now, and am doing everything that I can to jumpstart my listings. It's a bit of a challenge given that NYC searches are down 37% (as noted in the price tips today). My husband and I have been doing a lot of analysis the last few weeks, and we've decided to ditch two apartments. Both are apartments that we rent from consenting landlords but neither apartment has been performing as well this year as well as they have in the past. One apartment (3 bedroom/2 bath) has gone from 72% occupancy in 2015 to 65% occupancy in 2016, and the hard costs have increased about $300 a month. The other apartment hasn't dropped that much, but we just found out that the city is taking over the empty bank building next door as a parking authority. There's no way we're going to have suitcases rolling in and out 20 feet away from a municipal building. My challenge now is to ensure that all the remaining listings are as busy as I can get them to be, so I'm on the hustle!
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Post by High Priestess on Dec 14, 2016 22:59:20 GMT
Hi Maria
I wish the best to you as you hustle! Winter is always slower...but I think many are finding it's unusually slower. I just read recently on another host group, that a host is saying that many hosts in her area are on a "race to the bottom" with pricing that is basically putting them at a lower income level than they would get if they just rented out to a long term tenant...even if they have 100% occupancy! This is not sustainable. Another host commented that many folks jump into hosting but don't last long...someone said that 6-8 months is the average lifetime of a host. People jump in, figure out it isn't working, and jump out again. One host said she actually instant booked a place as a guest, only to never hear back from the host, and she realized the host was totally inactive. The booking would not have been honored....so there are some truly "dead" listings out there that hosts are I guess too lazy to just remove.
I would like to see the fly by nights get off the platform and leave the business to those who are really committed, such as many of us who've been around for many years.
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