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

@John5097 

 

Exactly. My maximum stay is 3 nights so I will never show up that way. But also, if a host doesn't have 7 straight nights available, they won't show up either. If they don't bring back the "anytime" search, bookings are going to decrease across the board.

 

I had been looking for a place in the mountains as a guest. I can go anytime in Sept or Oct so I was searching for a place that would fit, and was going to adjust my dates based on that. I was going to stay 4 or 5 nights, depending on the place, but again, my choices on Airbnb were only a weekend, week, or month. Today I found a place to book on VRBO instead.

@Suzanne302 

Hopefully something changes. As it is now you are exactly right. Its really confusing and will be difficult for guest to find available weeknights.

Clicking 1 day, 2 day, 3 day etc at the bottom does nothing. It reverts to "any week". Selecting  "I'm flexible" reverts to "any week" even if dates are selected. I'm not sure how "I'm flexible": worked in the past. Nothing flexible about this at all.

Not surpising really. A lot of host who were buried are now on the front page. Reminds me of Booking.com. Tons of places available with no reservations. I'll figure out a way to make it work, but can't trust Airbnb. Not really sure what other options there are either. I never thought my listing was that important as there are so many others, but need to keep renting it for a while. I always thought it would lie best to stay on one platform. Big change. 



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I've tested this some more. As of tonight the only dates on my calendar open for a week (7 days) or weekend is in November. My weekends book up 6 months in advance. So even if I change max stay to 7 days, as soon as someone books that weekend I my listing will be completely hidden unless someone enters exact dates I have available.

If guest chooses exact dates, say 3 nights, then clicks flexible it defaults back to "any week" so guest can't choose 3 nights and flexible. So weeknights will become more difficult to book and end up with last minute bookings or not book them at all. 

My listing is also a budget friendly nice apartment. So many people have loved it. I did all the renovations myself. This entire time anyone can book it with instant book and so many wonderful guest have really appreciated it. Its just a 1960s ranch house on a nice lot, like a lot of places, in 1960s neighborhood. It does have an amazing view on waterfront but doesn't show up in any of the categories. That's reserved for very expensive beach front listings. I guess beach front, beach, and surfing isn't enough.  

But when I allow 7 nights I'm the very first listing displayed. If I don't have 7 nights available all my weekdays are hidden unless the exact dates are entered. 

If Airbnb doesn't even want to book my weekdays what other choice do I have but to list on other platforms? VRBO is calling me tomorrow. They have a quick set up process where I entered the website to my Airbnb account. I don't know anything about hosting over there though  but what other choice do I have?  I've been the most popular 2 guest apartment in the entire area but if Airbnb doesn't want to book my place I'll have to do the best I can. 

@Suzanne302 When I travel I also just go up to the mountains for a 2-4 nights. That's most of the guest I get. Airbnb stat says 60% of guest to the area are within 300 miles and day average of 3-4 nights. 

But their new algorithm completely ignores that. 

Louise1097
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

The 7 day thing seems to explain why we are apparently not appearing on the map until October, and why 50% of the listings in our town have vanished across the summer. We are a town centre short breaks destination, where almost all bookings are 5 days or fewer.

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@John5097 

 

Yes, this afternoon I was searching for a couple of nights in a particular area. I didn't know the exact dates yet, but knew I wanted those nights to be during the week, not at the weekend, due to the purpose of my visit.

 

There was no option for that. I could either search for a week, month or weekend. No option to search for any stay shorter than a week that wasn't a weekend. It wasn't long before I gave up and left the site. 

 

Of course, once I know the exact dates, I could go back and hopefully find something. However, I thought the whole purpose of being able to search without dates was to see the possibilities. If I had found something nice within my budget for a couple of nights during the week, that would have determined the dates I chose for this trip, but it's simply not possible.

 

Hopefully, this won't make a huge difference to our bookings because guests WILL be searching with specific dates, not just armchair travelling and browsing multi million dollar properties that they could never afford to rent. However, the one rare time that I search with some flexibility on dates, the system doesn't allow me to search for any weekdays...

Helen744
Level 10
Victoria, Australia

@Huma0 and that shows that guests have had that' flexibility ' ,actual flexibility, removed by a computer . The money machine cannot compute rational thought in a human, and the powers that be, cannot see what has been lost. It is also very sad to see the contempt that Airbnb does also have for the ability to think of the rich and famous . H

Are they trying to position as an interactive travel agency? A clumsy attempt at best . It is necessary to provide separate arms and obviously not possible to just hijack a booking agency and add bits .Especially because the company does not own the assets . If people have overpaid and bought expensive properties in  then Brian should tell them that he cannot hijack his company and AIRbnb to help them get bookings but then again he owns it but not the hosts ever Brian . H

This is another very concerning change. I always look for lodging after I have my dates/flight. Thanks for sharing. 

@Huma0 

The categories is like the Plus listings. It should say "Sticker shock" "WTF" "Are you kidding me" 

Everyone is stressing out about not being included, and don't realize the real issue is the new search functions that exclude "weekdays"   

 

Searching for exact dates also could be more intuitive. A lot of guest may not understand what the +_ is for flexible. There should be little help dots with ? that guest could click on to know what it is. 

One thing about the pandemic is that travel dropped off so much most of the listings on other platforms totally dried up. ABB became the only big fish is a small pond. This happens when there are huge downturns. But now the others are gaining traction and back to pre 2020. I get ads now on Facebook for the V search I did and have really nice places. I was just searching my area so says "looking for a staycation?"  

Its amazing how many channel mangers there are also. I think I'm going to have fun with it and take a totally different approach. I like the guest who plan way in advance so will try to make it all work out, but have a lot of research on channel managers and such. 

 Hopefully the new insurance option will help. Oh well, just gotta roll with it. 🙂 I haven't made any adjustments yet. It will probably be an entire year of testing other options out to find the right approach for me. Can't give too much priority to just one. A good many of the most popular listings in my area just just ABB as it keeps them booked but a drop in occupancy rates will change that. 




 

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@John5097 

 

Yes, I am getting sticker shock for sure. Airbnb keeps showing me a lot of things I cannot afford, but when I put in my budget, suddenly I am just shown really awful places. Perhaps that IS all that is available within my budget in the area I am searching, but I never had this problem before.

 

Also, I did a search in my own area for shared homes and the options it was showing me were really not great compared to my listings but cost a fair bit more. My listings were not showing. Of course I am biased, but I am pretty sure I am being totally honest when I say the results were showing me either super high end expensive places until I entered my budget and then showing me some really not so great places after I specified budget.

 

I have, of course, previously done research into the Airbnb in my area and beyond so I know that what I am being shown as a guest is nowhere near representative of what actually is on offer. There are so many better places to stay that it is not showing.

Kristin1308
Level 1
Atlanta, GA

There should be a waterfront category. I am on a canal with a boat dock, but I am accross the street from the beach so I don’t think it is accurate to say beachfront.

Sybe
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
Terneuzen, Netherlands

@Kristin1308 Thank you for the suggestion! I can see why it would be useful to have the category as "waterfront". We'll make sure the team hears your suggestion! 🙂

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Sea-Willow0
Level 1
Melbourne, FL

When guests use the "filters" section there isn't a filter for PETS. The pets filter is only in the "Who" "Add guests" section. This will cause problems. Guest will use the "filters" option, find the place they want to rent, and AFTER they will add the number of guests. If you don't allow pets they won't see an option to add pets.  Pet friendly/or not should be one of the FIRST filters.