I would encourage all of us to search as a guest and give feedback to Airbnb as a guest, not just as a host.
Here is what I see on that score:
1) The search function does not work anything like it did before, which is confusing.
If you do not enter dates, which I would say most people thinking about an area do not at first so they can see all of what is available before narrowing things down, it defaults to a week in the future.
There is no rhyme of reason to the weeks shown. One would assume it would show the next available week or weekend, but it does not. Most people would stop their search of that area and move to another location thinking everything is booked. This is not good for Airbnb, hosts or guests.
I searched for a place in middle TN and was mostly shown dates in December and into March 2023. If you click on the property though you will see they have loads of openings, sometimes months at a time, prior to the dates Airbnb is showing. That is very misleading.
If you choose a weekend it works similarly, showing random 2 night weekends. This means as a host if you have week days or even if you have random weekends coming up soon that is not what is being shown. It is not sequential at all. Guests will assume you do not have any weekends before then.
CONCLUSION:
Defaulting to “ I’m Flexible” search is a terrible terrible thing for hosts and guests! This needs to be changed and I would encourage travelers and hosts to give this feedback at every opportunity.
2) If you use any of the categories it shows some of what might be in the area or not, depending on if the category is populated fully or not. When I added Design to my search it showed me properties in Nashville about an hour away and as far as Blue Ridge GA and Asheville. There are properties in this town that would qualify though. I know because I have stayed at them before. Same thing for treehouses. I know there are great tree houses in this town, but they are not shown.
3) If you use a category it moves the map. I searched for a town between Nashville and Knoxville. When I applied a category the map moved to center on Chattanooga, hours away from where I wanted to stay because I was visiting family.
CONCLUSION: Categories the way they are displayed right now, not being fully populated, is very misleading and shows a lot of favoritism to major markets. They should be fully populated prior to roll out to not be a frustration or confusing to guests.