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
Victoria1583
Level 2
London, United Kingdom

I have mixed feelings about the new release but one thing that struck me as a missed opportunity was to offer a category that focuses on the unique needs of the solo traveller.

 

As someone who's travelled with both my partner and alone, I find it so frustrating not being able to find accommodation that doesn't penalise me when I  opt for solo travel as we all know hotels base income and profit models on the basis of 2 people.

 

This is a real opportunity for Airbnb so having an "ideal for the solo traveller" category would allow those individuals who just want a space for 1 and negate the need to trawl through endless pages of listings for 1+ properties.


Yes I have a vested interest  as my property is for 1 person, but it could accommodate 2 people..I've listed it this way as I really want to cater for the solo traveller who is often neglected.

 

Emilie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

@Victoria1583 As someone who's travelled solo in the past, I can relate to that experience!

 

Thank you for the suggestion how Categories could help highlight suitable properties for those guests, I'll share it with the team. 🙂

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Merci de jeter un oeil aux Principes du Community Center/ Please follow the Community Guidelines

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

Since May 5. my all bookings stopped.

I got just 1 new booking since

I have 3  listings

It's the top season here.

Amanda660
Level 10
Auchenblae, United Kingdom

No bookings or enquiries for 3 weeks, in desperation I’ve dropped my minimum stay to one night and reduced my rate.  

Tiffany639
Level 2
Plymouth, United Kingdom

It would appear that there are many disgruntled hosts since the launch of the new update last week.

 

There appear to be a couple of main issues:-

1) Predominantly about either being listed in the wrong categories or not being listed in a relevant category and therefore are not being found on searches.  It seems that the hosts cannot change the categories which would be far more sensible than a computer doing it! Maybe the computer could suggest some but the host ultimately chooses whether it is relevant/correct or not.

 

2) Also, all the listing titles have been changed to generic ones eg "Flat in Norwich" or "House in Cornwall" - whereas before, the host had an eye-catching title in order to stand out and be different from all the other 'Flats in Norwich' or 'Houses in Cornwall'!

 

For example, mine used to say "Stunning Sea views in a Quirky, Comfortable Apartment" but now all it says is "Flat in Maker"! Not helpful or interesting all. It is only if you click into the list that you see the full title, but when presented with a list of results, all essentially saying the same thing, that is not a good user or host experience.

 

Many hosts I am speaking to have noticed a significant decline in views and therefore bookings too at what is usually a busy time of year.

 

3) The search facility keeps zooming out to include irrelevant countries/areas when you have searched for somewhere in particular. For example, I have just done a Cornwall search and on the map I get France and Devon!

 

Please please can this be fed up the line to the people that can actually change/correct this update. I appreciate that its good to launch new things and great for people in little known places to now be found, but the basics really need to be sorted otherwise many hosts will look to advertise on other platforms.

 

Any updates and feedback would be welcome.

Thanks, Tiffany

Emilie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

@Tiffany639 Thank you for taking the time to summarise some of yours and others' main concerns and suggestions regarding those recent changes. Everything you've mentioned here is part of the feedback I have shared with the product team, however we continue to highlight all your comments to them so I have passed yours on as well.

 

Although I do not have further answers right now, as and when we get more clarifications or update we'll let you all know here!

 

Emilie

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Merci de jeter un oeil aux Principes du Community Center/ Please follow the Community Guidelines

Tiffany639
Level 2
Plymouth, United Kingdom

Thank you and yes, it would be good to have some feedback/clarifications and we all look forward to some corrections ASAP to the new update.

Tiffany

@Emilie @Tiffany639 @Gillian166  What is with the zooming out??  I choose a place name, look at the results.  I then adjust the map and proceed to the categories.  The place name is changed to "map area," but the map goes crazy, making massive adjustments under every category.  How can guests set it and forget it as they proceed with their search?

@Gillian166 @Emilie @Ann72  Exactly. Another day, ZERO reservations.  

 

My non-computer savvy sister tried to book an Airbnb for a couple of days in NC on the new and NOT-improved platform, got totally confused then gave up.  She was put off by the pre-selected week, and difficulty finding listings in the area she wanted thanks to the map zooming her all over. This must be happening worldwide. Everywhere. Confusion. Lost business. Unhappiness. 

 

I'm not waiting. I've started the process of moving to a new platform.  However, I will keep my listing here in vague hopes that Airbnb fixes its giant f*ckup. 

 

Not encouraged by the tone deafness of rebranding itself as a site to book treehouses and designer digs, and sh*tting on its Host "partners." Unless the "team" incorporates Host feedback, I'm afraid this corporation has stepped off a cliff.


@Nancy1633 wrote:

@

 

My non-computer savvy sister tried to book an Airbnb for a couple of days in NC on the new and NOT-improved platform, got totally confused then gave up.  She was put off by the pre-selected week, and difficulty finding listings in the area she wanted thanks to the map zooming her all over. This must be happening worldwide. Everywhere. Confusion. Lost business. Unhappiness. 

 


similar story. i asked my non savvy friend to search my region and find my listings. her first comment was "gee that's expensive". She has pressed "skip" on setting dates, so it defaulted to 1 week. 🤦🏼‍♀️  there is no way to find a random day to book, you have to know exactly which date you want. bonkers! i fear we are all going to have many orphan days now. 

@Nancy1633  sorry about the no reservations, i've had 2 bookings since this rollout. it feels slow but we were mostly booked for may anyway. 

@Tiffany639 

There appear to be a couple of main issues:-

1) Predominantly about either being listed in the wrong categories or not being listed in a relevant category and therefore are not being found on searches.  It seems that the hosts cannot change the categories which would be far more sensible than a computer doing it! Maybe the computer could suggest some but the host ultimately chooses whether it is relevant/correct or not.

 

sadly, no, this can't be allowed, because hosts will just tick EVERY category, or the wrong ones. keyword spamming is very real and it ruins search, and people do it. I suppose they could allow us to choose ONE category, but then people would be upset because they might fit into more than that. 

 

when presented with a list of results, all essentially saying the same thing, that is not a good user or host experience.

 

Many hosts I am speaking to have noticed a significant decline in views and therefore bookings too at what is usually a busy time of year.

 


yes, this is just an awful experience for guests.

and I'm so glad this happened in "summer" haha, so all the bugs can be fixed by the time my summer rolls around. 

 

and that map zooming out thing is getting SOOO annoying, and I'm only doing research, can't imagine how frustrating it must be for guests. 

 

Hi, I disagree that hosts would tick every box because if you are in a city you wouldn’t say/tick that you are by the sea!

That would just be crazy and wrong and very unlikely to happen.


Especially now that they are offering guests the opportunity to have a refund if it’s not as listed, so it’s in the hosts interest to have the correct categories and the hosts know their properties better than a computer does.

 

Its coming into our summer now and so it really needs to be sorted out asap and lots of people are complaining about the zooming out aspect too, so hopefully they’ll listen to people/hosts and make the necessary corrections.

 

Fingers crossed. 

@Tiffany639  I'd like to hope you are correct, and perhaps the review system helps keep people honest. But, i've seen keyword spamming, where people put "cat" on a picture of a dog, or stupid things like "dog tooth" on a picture of a cat showing teeth.  

and categories are so subjective, your idea of "amazing view" might be different to mine, same for the OMG category, etc.
 
I'd be happy to see a hybrid, but right now the AI is only selecting the better and more obvious listings. even though I am in a wine region, i have pics of vineyards in my listing and mention it in the description we aren't in the category, instead just one random place (not close to the vineyard region) is in the category. Weird.  I'm not fussed about it, i really don't think these categories are going to used by the majority, or much beyond the first novelty use.  the only one i would click on is the OMG category. for fun, because i'm pretty sure i couldn't afford them anyway.

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Gillian166 

 

I was of the same thinking, i.e. that not that many guests are going to use the category search because that is not how most people want to book their travel. They already have an idea of where they want to go and when and what their budget is.

 

I still believe that. However, since this new release, I have noticed changes in the traditional search results, so I'm starting to think that the changes are affecting that in some way too. 

 

None of my listings show up in the 'shared homes' category, even if I really zoom in on my location, unless I enter dates. Then one shows up but not the other two. Okay, no problem...

 

But then, in a traditional search without categories, again, only that listing shows up and the other two are buried. I then add more filters and one of the other two shows up, but one of them (previously my most popular room) is buried much further down.

 

Oddly, just prior to the launch, all my rooms were getting more views than the previous month. Now they are not. More surprisingly, the most popular room that was getting a huge amount of views compared to usual, has suddenly taken a massive dive in views and requests/bookings for it have stopped.

Gillian166
Level 10
Hay Valley, Australia

@Huma0 
do you mention in your listing blurb that you have 3 listings? and then tell people to click on your profile and they can find them easily. 


I don't do that, but I think i will now, maybe even put it in a photo "hey, check out our other listings".