With over 400 million total visits, Booking.com is one of the biggest online travel agencies in the world. The Amsterdam-based company —particularly popular with Europeans— originally focused on hotels, and now boasts an ever-growing inventory of vacation rentals.
Listing your vacation rentals on platforms like Booking.com is essential in an increasingly competitive market, and tools like Rentals United make it easy.
However, success requires more than just being listed—you need to rank high in search results.
Booking.com’s algorithm matches visitors with short-term rental properties, but you can take simple actionable steps to optimize your listing’s search ranking and get more bookings.
Being proactive about this is key for your successful vacation rental marketing strategy.
So what can you do to start boosting your Booking.com ranking? Let’s take a look.
How does the Booking.com algorithm work?
First things first, it’s important to familiarize yourself with Booking.com’s ranking fundamentals before developing your vacation rental distribution strategy.
Guests who search for accommodation on Booking.com see the results of their searches listed by a ranking system which is based on their preferences.
Booking.com’s algorithms also take into account a visitor’s past searches, the current demands within the market, and properties’ overall performance on their platform.
Consequently, each visitor sees a completely personalized rankings list.
This is because, each time a visitor logs into their Booking.com account, the algorithm will adapt to their evolving requirements, as determined by their search journey.
This journey can be split into five stages:
- Exploration: This is where each guest begins their initial searches for a short-term rental. Here, they filter by factors such as destination, property type, facilities, prices and dates.
- Comparison: The guest begins to compare accommodation options and assesses which option best meets their needs.
- Booking: Once they’ve selected the best rental for them, the guest reserves the property for their desired dates.
- Experience: This encompasses the entire duration of their booking, from the moment their reservation is finalized to the moment they leave the property.
- Evaluation: Visitors rank their overall experience of their stay up until check-out time. The guest reviews reflect the overall quality of the property, including facilities, amenities, cleanliness and service—which helps other guests decide whether they should book that property or not.
Need some tips? Here are 10 steps to start boosting your bookings:
10 top strategies to improve your ranking on Booking.com
1. Optimize your properties descriptions
When a guest books one of your properties, it indicates to Booking.com’s algorithm that similarly-profiled guests may want to book it too. For this reason, conversion is one of the most significant factors in how high your listing ranks in the search results.
To increase your conversion rate, you need to make your listing look more attractive.
- Research your guest’s needs. Have you noticed that all your bookings are from a similar type of guest? Try to present your property so that it targets a specific niche. This will help you rank higher when similar Booking.com users are searching for their next short-term rental.
2. Offer all the information guests need to make a booking decision
Be thorough. Mention all the facilities and amenities your property has. The more details you provide, the more likely your listing is to appear in search results even after guests have applied multiple filters.
Offer extra information and tips – guests appreciate this – and it shows the effort you make to provide the best experience. It can be something small and simple, such as directions to the property or tips to find good parking spots
3. Use top quality photos
The first-impression guests have of your listing is essential. Use well-lit, high-resolution images, and capture multiple angles of any key spaces like cozy living areas, gardens and greenery, furnished kitchens, or scenic views from the property, to give guests a multi dimensional view of your listing.
Want to capture stunning photos of your rental? Find out here!
4. Communicate well with your guests
Communication is key! Clear, prompt responses help build trust, enhance guest satisfaction, and lead to positive reviews—crucial for boosting your listing’s visibility and search ranking.
Respond to inquiries quickly, ideally within an hour. Use polite, professional language, provide detailed check-in instructions and house rules
Automating responses for common questions is great for saving time, but also try to include a personal touch to make your guests feel welcome. During their stay, check in occasionally, and follow up with a thank you after checkout.
Good communication fosters positive experiences, increasing the likelihood of repeat guests and referrals and, if there are any issues with the stay, high quality communication can make the difference between a positive or negative review!
5. Ensure availability
Simply put, if a property doesn’t have availability on dates that guests are searching for, it won’t appear in search results. So, make sure you provide availability at least a year into the future and adjust your minimum stay restrictions to increase the visibility of your listings.
As a property manager, it’s important that you make sure there aren’t too many dates blocked out in the property’s calendar. Otherwise, there won’t be enough availability on OTAs, which will affect your revenue potential.
Rentals United Data Studio Property Health Cards allow you to easily track blocked dates via the Unsellable Nights metric, so you can determine how much availability you need to unlock to increase your revenue.
Advance availability options will not only encourage repeat bookings from satisfied guests, but will also attract new guests who like to plan ahead.
Now that the uncertainty around travel is decreasing, booking windows are getting longer, and an increasing number of guests are making early-bird reservations. Don’t miss out on them!
It’s also crucial to adjust your minimum length of stay. If it is set to 7 nights, guests who are searching for shorter stays won’t see your listing in search results.
6. Manage price updates
Offering a wide variety of rate plans increases your chances of getting conversions by appealing to guests with different booking priorities.
You can try:
- Mobile rate: Add a discount for booking made on mobile devices. Over half (59%) booking on Booking.com reservations come from a mobile device—adding a Mobile Rate helps your properties to stand out in search results and increase bookings from mobile devices by up to 28% on average.
- Multi-rates: offering guests more choices, such as varied cancellation policies or add-ons like breakfast, can help your properties be more attractive in search results and increase your chances to gain more bookings.
- LOS (Length Of Stay) discount: Provide weekly or monthly discounts. Incentivize guests to book longer stays, and get those valuable off-season bookings.
- Early-bird discount: Provide a discount for guests who book and pay well in advance.
- Last-minute discount: Offer a discount to secure last-minute stays.
- Number of guests: set different prices per occupancy—for example, $110 for 2 people, $120 for 3, $140 for 4 people and so on. This allows you to showcase your listings in more searches.
Our data shows that properties using multi-rates see a 20% increase in bookings and revenue compared to those using static pricing.
7. Provide flexible cancellation policies
Over the past two years, flexible cancellation policies have become the standard, due to ongoing travel uncertainty. While offering a full refund may increase the likelihood of a cancellation, properties with flexible cancellation policies get more bookings than properties with a no-refund approach.
Guests now expect flexibility and are often willing to pay extra for it. Many actively use the “Free Cancellation” filter when searching, making flexible policies essential for attracting bookings.
8. Join Booking.com’s exclusive programmes
Booking.com offers exclusive programmes designed to optimise your listings on Booking.com.
Joining the Genius Programme gives you extra visibility through special tagging, ranking boosts, and better visibility in search results on our platform. On average, partners who join Genius increase their bookings by 29% and their revenue by 24%, with the cost of the discount accounted for.
The Preferred Partner Program is the next level up, helping property managers receive a boost in visibility and ranking. Preferred partners also receive up to 65% more page views and 40% more bookings.
To become a partner for each of these programmes, you must meet a set of criteria, listed in the table below:
| Genius | Preferred Partner | |
| Your property must be open and bookable on Booking.com. | You must have a Performance Score of at least 70% (based on expected annual bookings and traveller demand). | |
| Your property must have received at least 3 guest reviews. | Your Review Score must be at least 7 out of 10. | |
| It must have a review score of at least 7.5 (lower if the average score for your area is below 7.5 and your property scores above this average). | In comparison to prices on other booking websites, your prices must be considered ‘ competitive’. | |
| To find out more, click Opportunities in the Booking.com extranet and select ‘Genius Programme’. | To find out more, click Opportunities in the Booking.com extranet and select ‘Preferred Partner Programme’. |
9. Give your listings a boost with Booking.com’s Visibility Booster
This one is very simple; just trade a bit of commission for a boost!
Booking.com’s Visibility Booster tool increases your listing’s ranking for a higher commission fee. You control when to use it—whether to attract bookings during slow periods, recover from cancellations, or gain visibility before peak seasons like national holidays.
Think of it this way; a slightly smaller percentage of a booking is better than a higher percentage of no bookings. And as we’ve seen, more conversions leads to higher search rankings, which leads to (you guessed it) more bookings!
10. Build your booking toolkit
Booking.com’s Booker Insights tool gives you key insights including which countries guests book from, which devices they use, and their reason for traveling.
Booking.com also offers tools such as Opportunities and Promotions, as well as the exclusive Partner Programmes, and while you’re at it, check out Rentals United Data Studio to learn new ways to boost performance across all platforms.
As a Booking.com Seamless Experience Product*, Rentals United allows you to effortlessly manage your Booking.com listings while boosting your visibility and conversions.
*Rentals United and Booking.com work together to bring property managers like you a connection that exceeds standard channel management in the vacation rental industry.
Frequently asked questions about improving your Booking.com ranking
How do I rank higher on Booking.com?
Conversions! The more visitors you move from explorer to booker, the higher you’ll rank in Booking.com search results. You can improve your conversion rate by having great-looking listings with high-quality photos, in-depth property descriptions and lists of all the facilities and amenities your property offers.
How do I increase my Booking.com ranking?
When someone books your property, the Booking.com algorithm will show your property to guests with similar profiles. Finding a smaller group of people to target is one of the best ways to improve your rankings. It’s better to rank high for a smaller group of guests than to rank low for a larger group.
How do I increase my visibility on Booking.com?
In the long term, providing a great place to stay and having happy guests is the best way—this is how you get great reviews which are key to increasing conversions. If you’re looking for a quick boost, however, Booking.com can help with its Visibility Booster. Give it a try!