Airbnb 2022 Summer Release: What you need to know

[Airbnb]

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?

[Tony-And-Una0]

I showed this new release to some friends who are in web design. 

They couldn't believe what they were seeing.  Giving over precious "real estate" to categories such as "grand pianos" is truly astounding.

The brand is now completely lost up its own vortex of hubris

I would love to know how many people have ever searched for "grand pianos".

They have completely lost sight of why Airbnb was set up and what most of their market, and ours,  are actually looking for.

  I am wondering if this is Airbnb's "Ratner moment". If you are in the UK you'll understand this reference.  

[Ken1852]

Great going folks. You've destroyed your own platform. My bookings have ended. Looks like I'll be gling elsewhere.

[Larissa112]

@Ken1852 We haven't had a single inquiry or booking since the new rollout. It's so insane. Even prime dates that would usually be swiped up within an hour. 

[Suzanne302]

@Ken1852 

You mean that $16,000/night listing in Joshua Tree I keep seeing every single time I visit the site isn't yours? LOL. This is absolutely ridiculous. I'd love to know what the executives at Airbnb are discussing these days.

And the poor mods in the CC are doing their best to keep up but have to bear the brunt of the frustrations from hosts. It's so not fair to them.

[Ken1852]

It's not fair to them but at least they have a form of income. As of now, I have no income. Even my side business of tending to hot tubs is nearly dead. 

[Natasha-and-John0]

i need to sign up with vbro asap

[Susan1188]

Try tapping the for "Iconic Cities" then zoom into Europe (no dates).

You get One.  One!   Listing in Spain.  One "Plus" property on the Rambla in Barcelona.  How can this be normal?

[Jerry250]

Wow! I see what you mean. Poor old Europe on the continent wide map view  is a wasteland for 'iconic cities'.

Looked at the UK. London - tick, Edinburgh - tick. Liverpool - forget it (home of the Beatles for our international members). Glasgow - nothing.

Poor old Germany, hosts there may as well give up. 

I appreciate Airbnb wants guests to search outside the hotspots and avoid the wrath of city and county authorities but It's not great this new category search is it?

[Michelle53]

I'd just like to say that, for a company that has spent so much time beating the drum of inclusivity, to have such an exclusive front page seems rather disingenous to me. 

Please raise your hand if you feel even a sliver of "belonging" in an $8000 a night residence in Joshua Tree. 

[Tony-And-Una0]

Yeah.

It's like booking an Uber but only being offered a limousine, in a different city.

[Susan1188]

You just made my day with that one, that's exactly it!

You look for an plain vanilla Uber in Seville and they offer you a stretch limo in Madrid (or a tuktuk in Barcelona).

[Louise1097]

Or like booking an Uber but only being offered a trip to the moon by Elon Musk. 

[Ken1852]

My listing in Joshua Tree is now dead. It's over for AirBnB.

[Michelle53]

@Ken1852  Sorry to hear that - it's a place I'd like to visit, someday. Obviously not with Airbnb though.   It probably won't make you feel any better to know that my ordinary budget space in my home is dead too.  No pool, no views, no surfing,  no giant potatoes in the yard. Just a clean, comfortable space folks used to love to visit when coming into town for a concert, sporting or family event. 

[Mark116]

@Michelle53  Interesting, based on our own views [which are slightly down, but within normal parameters] my theory had been that the more ordinary apartment type of listings had mostly escaped the clutches of Skynet. 

It might be that because the NYC area mostly only has apartments on offer, and you have to go pretty far out before you would be finding entire houses or unique stays, it has been less calamitous here.

But, really, who knows?  Not Airbnb that is for sure.  I notice we haven't heard from the Host Committee about this debacle, LOL.  I would almost believe that literally no one tests this stuff they roll out, because it seems virtually impossible that things can be this poorly designed/executed again and again.