Classifying my listing within a “category”

[Molly396]

Can someone please help me optimize for the new category search feature? We have a very high end unit with a chefs kitchen. It’s displayed in photographs, mentioned in descriptions and captions, and we get stellar feedback from our guests. When I go to view the new category “chef’s kitchen”, it does not come up. In fact, no listings in our city (Pittsburgh) come up. I would understand maybe if there were better more equipped “chefs kitchens” in my area.. but there are zero being advertised, and we have one! Can anyone help me get our place classified? We have another unit that is a tiny house. It’s not coming up under category “tiny house”.

I would love some guidance! 

[Huma0]

@Molly396 

Well, it looks very well equipped, but I am still not sure about the photos. They are not bad, but they are also not as slick as one would like. I know it's difficult. I'm a magazine editor so it's part of my job to 'judge' imagery but that doesn't mean I'm a great photographer myself. I will wait for @Clara116 's judgement on it!

How important do you think it is to you to be included in the chef's kitchen category? Do you think that guests looking for that constitute a large portion of your bookings or that you would attract more guests if you were in that category?

Personally, I am starting to think that it will make little to no difference to my bookings to be included in categories or not. At the moment, they are so clunky and inconvenient to use that I think guests will just get frustrated and give up on it unless they are looking for something super specific, e.g. they want to stay in a teepee and nothing else will do.

Based on the feedback so far, and it has only been one day, I think Airbnb will need to radically overhaul this new feature or scrap it entirely.

[Clara116]

@Molly396 @Huma0 I'm with you. Huma...pics aren't bad but they don't scream anything extraordinary. I think what's more important is perhaps the description on photos and in your listing descriptions.  I'd trust Huma as a magazine editor all day long about pics and her advice. I'd just make sure you're stuff is up-to-date....I think the algorithm works off that.  

I have never looked thru mags for chef's kitchen pics....see what they focus on for tips if you feel so compelled. 

[Huma0]

@Molly396 

When I just read @Clara116 "s response, I thought, great idea!

Then I googled the following:

Chef's kitchen residential

Chef's kitchen amenities

Chef's kitchen Airbnb

and pretty much all I got was pictures of the overall space, which you already have, or pictures of some random chef cooking. The problem (which shouldn't be a problem) is that you have a very slick, minimally designed kitchen where all the gadgets are hidden out of site, which is great. However, that just conveys nice kitchen rather than chef's kitchen because you can't see all the fancy extras that are on offer.

I couldn't find much in the way of photos showing the details. These are some of the few that came up and they are okay I guess, but nothing amazing, so there really seems to be a lack of inspiration on that front. You could try Pinterest instead though.

Perhaps @Clara116 is right and that the description is the area to focus on.

[Molly396]

@Huma0  Interesting idea of putting food in the pictures! Thank you so much. The results that came up for me were similar, mostly less sleek kitchens. I wonder if I can get into the design category. I am going to try not to drive myself up a wall chasing this, I agree I think they will need to rethink this whole roll out a little bit and make some tweaks. Most (all) of our guests are coming to stay with us because of our location not because of the kitchen, but I would obviously like to maximize my presence a little!

[Huma0]

@Molly396 

I'm going to see how it goes with these categories because currently the searches are super glitchy and it seems that even if you fulfil all the criteria, you don't necessarily show up.

So, I think you are right not to drive yourself up a wall. Just focus on what you are doing well and what attracts most of your guests to your space.

Of course we have the reviews/feedback at resources for this but sometimes I find it interesting to ask guests how they found my listing, what they were searching for etc. 

[Martin91]

I understand the idea of not driving yourself crazy about not being in a special "category." But... people travel to my remote mountain lake town to stay in a "cabin" and therefore they naturally hit the "cabins" category. Half of the cabins I manage disappear when that happens because the algorithm doesn't detect they are cabins even though they are obviously cabins, the titles say so, the descriptions say so, the photos say so, the reviews say so... yet our places don't show up under the "cabins" category. I think they should not have mixed AMENITIES like pools and views and chef's kitchens with ACCOMMODATION types like "cabins" in the new categories program. It is filtering out many hosts at no fault to the hosts! 😞

[Molly396]

@Martin91 100% everything you just said. It completely confused amenity, accommodation, location, etc and will probably lead to some guest disappointment. We have a unique high design unit, and would appreciate it marketed as such— the other units locally in that category do not compete (at the risk of sounding so pompous- but take a look at the ones in Pittsburgh under design and tell me if I’m wrong!). Also- you can search PGH for “lakeside” category and not “creative spaces” category— there’s no lake in the city so for some reason this is excluding huge numbers of highly creative city spaces. 

I have also learned that the search results change based on where you are searching from. I got different PGH category offerings and results than someone out of state who I asked to search. This doesn’t make sense to me. 

It also aims to promote hosts who are really great at their SEO— not necessarily the ones who are great at hosting. Ill attach here the response I got from elevating with Airbnb to an “engineering ticket”. It basically told me there is nothing I can do to guarantee placement in a category. “You may have a better chance of being featured but not guaranteed” or something like that.  It is decided by the algo and refreshed every two or so weeks. So one week you could be on the category list and the next week not. We show up at the top of our local general search. No where to be found in any categories. I’m incredibly frustrated and would appreciate if they acknowledged the roll out has had issues. I hope you are able to get your cabin accurately categorized as a cabin!!!! 

**[Content removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines- Please note that it is not allowed to share Airbnb investigation and private conversations]

[Molly396]

@Martin91 I would be satisfied if they could just minimize the presence of the category feature! It’s dominating the guest experience 

[Clara116]

@Molly396 if you are so keen on chef's kitchen....change your title. Also I don't see much description under each photo...that's important.... pretty sure.... especially with guests often not reading listing but looking at pics. Just an additional thought. I wish you the best.

[Molly396]

I am less keen on chefs kitchen and more just focused on how we can maximize and use this much hyped new category feature. I will put some time into the description later tonight! Thank you so much for the feedback!! @Clara116 

[Mark116]

@Molly396  I would think for chef's kitchen you would want more photos of the kitchen itself, a close up of the stove,  a shot of the open refrigerator, some portrait type shots of presumably high end cookware/spices/other in the cabinets.  Possibly a shot of the island set up for a dinner. Also, a longer written description of what exactly makes it a chef's kitchen.  It looks very sleek & modern, but that is something different.

[Molly396]

@Mark116 Thanks!!

! I will consider how I might be able to work those shots in. spices, dinner set up, is genius. I will put some attention to my descriptions as well. Maybe I’m really just curious how to get into any of these categories! So elusive! I did take a photo of the fridge open,.. is this what you mean?

[Mark116]

@Molly396  Yeah that is what I meant, but it doesn't really add much in terms of photo appeal, maybe mention somewhere what kind of refrigerator it is, esp. if its sub zero which is maybe something the algo would pick up on.

[Anonymous]

@Molly396  Chef here. You have a nice home kitchen, and there's nothing wrong with it. If I was searching listings mostly for the location and just wanted to be able to make an occasional light meal, it looks totally suitable for that.

But the "Categories" feature is designed for flexible searches, where some particular thing about the home is the guest's top priority. And if my trip plans involved so much heavy-duty cooking that the chef's kitchen mattered more than the location, your kitchen is not what I'd be looking for. I don't see anything resembling ventilation for the stove, there's inexplicably a carpet in the exact space where food is likeliest to drip, the useful items I need to grab quickly are hidden in vanity cabinetry, the cooking vessels appear too small for a full-on feast, the open-plan design leaves the kitchen chaos in full view of the dining area, and the prep space is too narrow for multiple cooks to comfortably take their stations. That is all totally OK for just about every normal use of a holiday rental, but if I specifically needed a chef's kitchen, to be brutally honest, it's a nightmare.

That said, if you really wanted to market your loft as a culinary destination, I see no reason why the algorithm should crock-block you. There's no empirical definition of a chef's kitchen - it's basically just a real-estate-agent euphemism for "owner who overpaid for shiny surfaces seeks return on investment" - and anyway, Airbnb is hellbent on making search results ever less accurate.

[Molly396]

@Anonymous  Thank you so much for this feedback! The hood vent is retractable, it comes up from the island, but I see your point!

 And I agree, the search is becoming so strange.