Why am I not getting any bookings on Airbnb?

First, make sure you can actually be booked

Before you touch price or photos, rule out the simplest cause: a listing that is hard to book. Open your calendar and availability settings and check, as a guest would see it:

• •The listing is listed, not snoozed or unlisted.
• •Dates are open, and your availability window reaches far enough ahead for guests who plan early.
• •Minimum stay isn't longer than guests in your area usually book. A long minimum hides you from short searches.
• •Advance notice and preparation time aren't blocking the nights guests want, such as same-week weekends.
• •Your check-in window and guest requirements aren't stricter than you need.
• •Instant Book: if it's off, consider turning it on. Airbnb says listings guests can book without waiting for approval may rank higher.

Airbnb's own advice for search ranking includes keeping more dates open and offering flexible minimum and maximum stays. Airbnb says new listings usually show up in search no later than 24 hours after publishing.

Find where guests drop off

Airbnb's Insights shows a booking funnel under Performance, then Conversion. You may need to opt in to Airbnb's professional hosting tools to see it, and Insights fills in only after your first booking. The funnel has three stages:

1. 1.First-page search impressions: how often guests see you in search. Low here means a visibility problem: calendar rules, price or Instant Book.
2. 2.Search-to-listing conversion: how often they click through. Low here means your lead photo, title or headline price isn't winning the click.
3. 3.Listing-to-booking conversion: how often they book once they're on the page. Low here means the listing itself: price, reviews, description, amenities or house rules.

If your listing is new and has no bookings yet, you won't see the funnel; check its views and compare prices by hand as below.

Compare your price with the right listings

Airbnb says it compares a listing's total price with similar listings for the same dates, and that listings priced below comparable ones tend to rank higher. Your nightly rate alone isn't the number guests weigh; cleaning fees and other fees count too.

To compare on desktop: open your calendar, select one or more nights, click the nightly price and choose View similar listings. Look at booked prices (what guests actually paid for similar homes) rather than available prices (what unbooked homes are asking). The comparison doesn't appear while Airbnb Smart Pricing is on. Whether to use that setting is its own question; see should I use Airbnb Smart Pricing.

For a new listing with no reviews, Airbnb suggests adjusting price or offering a discount to win the first stays. Early stays bring your first reviews, and Airbnb counts ratings and reviews in search ranking, so those first bookings are worth more than the nightly rate alone.

Win the click, then the booking

In search, a guest sees your lead photo, title, price and rating, and little else. If guests see you but don't click:

• •Lead with your strongest photo: bright, wide and showing what makes the home worth booking, not the front door.
• •Put the best reason to book in the title: the view, the yard, the walk to the beach.
• •Check the first few photos on a phone as well as a laptop; that is where many guests browse.

If they click but don't book, read your listing as a stranger would. Does the description answer the obvious questions (beds, parking, stairs, Wi-Fi)? Are your amenities complete and accurate? Do your house rules sound welcoming or like a list of fines? Do you reply quickly to inquiries? Airbnb's ranking also weighs how fast you respond and how often you decline requests; see how fast you have to reply.

Mistakes to avoid

• •Changing price, photos and rules all at once. Change one thing, wait a week or two, and look again, so you know what worked.
• •Comparing yourself with listings that aren't similar: different size, area or quality.
• •Comparing nightly rates and forgetting the cleaning fee.
• •Blocking dates you would actually accept, then wondering why search doesn't show you.
• •Declining requests or cancelling. Both count against you in search.

If bookings stopped after a run of good months, also check your local rules and recent reviews: a new permit requirement or one bad review can change things fast. Your free report checks the rules for your address.