Airbnb 2022 Summer Release: What you need to know

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Airbnb 2022 Summer Release: What you need to know

Our 2022 Summer Release represents the biggest change to Airbnb in a decade. We’re introducing:

 

  • Airbnb Categories: A new way to search that makes it easy for guests to discover millions of homes they never knew existed

  • Split Stays: An innovative feature that pairs two listings when a guest searches for a longer stay

  • AirCover: The most comprehensive protection in travel, included for free with every stay

 

Get all the details on the Resource Center, and tell us: Will you be updating your listing for Airbnb Categories and Split Stays? How will you update it?

1,048 Replies 1,048

The point is to take away control of the host. 

Dude, you guys have killed businesses with this change. This thread is quite evident of that. It makes no sense.

I would agree.  I went to to the system again to confirm the cover picture.  On the categories, it seems to show a random picture which is good for the listing but not the one chosen for promotion. I'm hopeful they can update this soon as well. 

Enri1804
Level 10
North Topsail Beach, NC

@Airbnb you wrote “…tell us: Will you be updating your listing for Airbnb Categories and Split Stays? How will you update it?” 

We would love to do this. AirBnB needs to tell us HOW WE will update it. We see no categories to select on our end. Your latest article and video do not instruct hosts on how to set this up. I have searched my dashboard, descriptions, etc on app and browser. Please direct the hosts so we can be properly categorized asap. As of today my beach listing can no longer be found after filtering for beachfront or beach. Thanks!

Stephanie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hi @Enri1804 ,

 

To be included in a Category, please ensure your amenities are up to date, your pictures are high quality and include something relevant to the category you'd like to be included in, and that you include category key words in your title and description. I shared a great Resource Center article further up where you can read more info on Categories - you can check it out here: New ways for guests to discover your listing

 

Thanks,

 

Stephanie

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Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Stephanie 

 

Sorry to be a pain but you keep repeating these instructions and hosts keep repeating that it doesn't work.

 

My amenities are up to date, my pictures are high quality (taken by Airbnb professional photographers) and relevant, e.g. show shared spaces in my shared listing, and the title and description are as relevant as I think they could be. It doesn't make any difference!

 

When I search in the shared listing category and zoom in on my area, my listings don't show up. Instead, 90% of the listings that do have poor quality photos and no special amenities that should put them above mine. They have much less desirable shared spaces than mine, e.g. less bathrooms, less living or kitchen space, and are higher priced. Many other hosts have already reported similar issues with other categories and we are just getting started.

 

This search is basically cheating guests out of finding the best listings available for their criteria. If I was a guest and I knew this was what was really happening, I would definitely be looking elsewhere. 

 

It is NOT a great resource centre article because you can do all of these things and it simply does not work.

Asli2
Level 2
Panama City Beach, FL

Hi, has all your listing ever showed up in the correct category eventually? If so, how long did it take? One moderator in one of these forums says that the category filters get populated with new listings every 2 weeks, so did your property really show up in the right category after 2 weeks? I'd very much like to know how long it took you to get picked up, if you ever did, your response is greatly appreciated. Thanks a million for letting me know. 

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Stephanie 

 

Just to reiterate again:

 

- When I search the shared listings category, I get a very limited and not so great selection of properties.

- When I search the historic homes category, I am only shown listings in France and no other country.

- When I search the design category and then try to zoom the map into London, it shows me properties in completely different parts of the UK, but actually mostly in France (again).

 

What difference does it make if we have up-to-date amenities, great photos and key words if the algorithm can't even get the country right, let alone anything else?

Stephanie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hey @Huma0 ,

 

Yes, my colleagues and I have been reading from you and the other Hosts here on the Community Center and feeding it back to the product team, directly. As soon as I get some more information for you I will share at as soon as I can.

 

Thanks!

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Hello,

 

To recap: 

(1) my "cabin" listing is not returned in the cabin category search in "Margaretville, NY", unless I am ZOOMED in on Margaretville. It used to always show in search by area. Now your search engine returns cabins miles outside of Margaretville.

 

(2) the title I gave my listing is removed in the category ("cabin") search- the title mentions my amenity (barrel sauna). Guests would not otherwise know the property has a sauna.

 

(3) you have "chosen" a photo to display which is not the one I want, which shows my sauna.

 

(4) your site omits "sauna" as an amenity, while it includes "hot tub". Why isn't "sauna" listed as an amenity? I put one on my property at considerable cost.

 

(5) Your platform has taken listing control from hosts, and made it more complicated and confusing for guests to plan trips, by forcing them to pick travel dates instead of picking available dates on the calendar. That should be changed back.

 

The site changes were not helpful to either guests or hosts. Hosts should control what guests SEE in their listing. Guests should have transparency in booking- to see available dates on the calendar before making a choice.  I expect my business to decline, now that my property is harder to find, and information about my sauna is buried in undisplayed photos.  The site was just fine the way it was. 

 

Finally, it seems like Airbnb is focusing on offbeat 'experience' listings at the expense of the majority of conventional properties. 

 

Airbnb has disregarded my choice of a photo to display as the cover photo in the "Shared Home" tab - I had put a lot of thought into the order of the photos. The response I got from CS was to delete the photo the AI chose and maybe the one I want would be featured. As a host, I should be able to show a photo of an amenity in the order I choose. (The washer and dryer became the cover photo under the "Shared Home" listing. I wanted to show that as a feature but NOT as the cover photo.)
When setting up the listing, we are asked to choose a cover photo - that photo should be retained as the cover photo no matter what tab is chosen.

I've literally just searched Smith Mountain Lake properties, a very popular lake destination in Virginia. I got a house in Lynchburg, a trailer in Moneta, random cabins NOT in Smith Mountain Lake, and some houses in Roanoke. 

 

Airbnb has demonstrated no accountability to hosts by using "machine learning" to manage this process and leaving us entirely out of it. In addition, how do we meet a moving, abstract, and ill-defined target? 

@Enri1804 This is not working. As an example… and there are many others… We have a property called The Barn, with a picture of the exterior which clearly is a barn made into a home. In the listing description it says it is a converted barn. Our reviews reference a barn … and we are not in the Barn category.

 

We do not know what else to do to make the AI see us as a barn stay which is exactly the unique thing about that property that led people to book.

 

The category inclusion process is too elite and too elusive. AI is not well developed.

 

It is a cool concept, categories, but it is not working, especially in B markets. If you are a in a major market or a market that doesn’t have a lot to offer in way of categories maybe it works better, IDK, but based on all the feedback I’ve read and my own experiences with 8 properties across 3 states it is not working as one would think was intended and it is not intuitive. 

Emilia42
Level 10
Orono, ME

Hello upper class! I can't afford to travel this way but I'm sure there are lots of those who can. This is another "biggest change to Airbnb in a decade" that I found rather bland. 😕

Stephanie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hey @Emilia42 ,

 

Guests can still input their price range using the filter and get plenty of results in the categories. Naturally, I picked Barns (lucky click i guess) and got this:

Stephanie_1-1652291587029.png

We hope the Categories will help surface some listings that might otherwise be missed by an old-fashioned location search. 

 

As always, I appreciate your honest opinion on our updates! 🙏🏻

 

Thanks

 

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