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?

[Lisa34]

Gatlinburg ListingMy listing photo

[Lisa34]

[Kristina46]

I have amazing views and am by the beach. Both are in the title. Guests rave about the view. Am I in the amazing views category? No I am not. 

 

 

[Marcy65]

Why on earth would you allow someone to search an area, allow them to select a category, and then shotgun the results as far as FOUR HOURS drive time away from the search area? People are going to think there's not any options in their selected search area when there are! I could see this as being reason for people to choose not to skip the vacation, or use a different platform to book. Poor form on Airbnb's part to think this is okay. 

[Peggy137]

I had a guest book for a day in Sept. He wrote me, confused because he thought he had booked for 2 days, and wanted to change it. I told him to request a change to the reservation and I'd make sure to hold the day he wanted for him.

I just got this message from him: 

Peggy - something seems wrong with the app as it will not allow me to select Friday 9/23 as check in for a 2-night stay checking out on Sunday 9/25. I’m going to cancel the reservation. Perhaps something in the settings doesn’t allow a 2 night stay only on the prime nights of the week or the software thinks there is another booking. Either way I can’t seem to manipulate the app differently to make it work.

I have NO bookings for Sept, his was the only one. There are no conflicting reservations, the only problem is the new website.

This is so frustrating and infuriating that Airbnb does nothing.

[Lisa34]

Do you think he was using the new I’m flexible and search? Either way though please give this feedback directly to Airbnb. They need to know that the real world application of their new role out is not working.

[Nancy1633]

@Lisa34  @Peggy137 

Peggy's lost booking is not a one-off.

Every Host reporting on these boards that bookings dried up since the "new" AirBnb launch, and probably thousands mystified that their once-successful businesses have dried up, is a victim of AirBnb's massively ill-conceived redesign.  Same for Guests, thwarted from booking by the utterly counterintuitive new search that hides properties, zooms them hundreds of miles away from a chosen destination, omits whole swaths of geography from search results, mis-categorizes  properties, removes descriptive listing titles, offers them weird future WEEKS, hiding the calendar on first click.  In my hometown vernacular, we'd call AirBnb's 2022  Summer Release a "clusterf*ck."

How is this a surprise that we continue to lose business and AirBnb continues to lose customers? 

The ARROGANCE of AirBnb to sandbag it's loyal Host partners with this wholly ill-conceived radical and error-ridden platform, upending our businesses.  We are LOSING INCOME EVERY DAY. 

It's time for injured Hosts to get word out on social media since this company will not CORRECT A MISTAKE.  

Trust me, there aren't enough tree houses, igloos, giant potatoes and Frank Lloyd Wright homes to make up for AirBnb's self-inflicted harm. 

[Lisa34]

Please copy and paste this exactly in the feedback forum on platform. This is the kind of thing they need to hear from us. 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1640/share-your-feedback-about-airbnb

[Nancy1633]

Thanks for the link. Just submitted this feedback:

"Surely you've noticed a growing drumbeat of Hosts reporting on these boards that their bookings STOPPED since the "new" AirBnb launch? Likely, there are tens of thousands more mystified that their once-successful businesses have dried up. No, it's NOT inflation or high gas prices-- VRBO reports THEIR business is BOOMING.

We Hosts whose bookings have STOPPED are victims of AirBnb's massively ill-conceived redesign.

Same for Guests. Our guests are thwarted from booking our listings by AirBnb's utterly counterintuitive new search that HIDES properties, ZOOMS HUNDREDS OF MILES AWAY FROM THEIR DESTINATION, OMITS whole swaths of geography from search results, miscategorizes properties, removes descriptive listing titles, offers weird arbitrary WEEKS repelling guests.

In my hometown vernacular, AirBnb's 2022 Summer Release is "a clusterf*ck."

In your hubris, you've sandbagged loyal Host partners with this wholly ill-conceived radical and error-ridden platform, upending our businesses and our lives.

We are LOSING INCOME EVERY DAY this fiasco continues. This is unsustainable for most of us. My AirBnb income is supposed to cover my daughter's college tuition! What will I do now?

FYI, Guests are booking on VRBO instead, and Hosts will not hang around AirBnb much longer if our bookings don't come back.  All you need to do is reinstate your former user-friendly platform that shows ALL properties with Host- given titles and does not use default weeks!

Trust me, there aren't enough tree houses, igloos, giant potatoes and Frank Lloyd Wright homes to make up for the Hosts and Guests you are losing. Admit a mistake. return to the old search and listing format. Please."

[Mark-and-Gabriela0]

Unfortunately, Airbnb doesn’t care

[Kristina46]

You forgot all the crazy mapping and tagging errors. (Putney Vermont tagged as London because there is a Putney borough of London). Here on the Big Island of Hawaii, EVERY listing in Kailua Kona is  tagged to a Beans Beach. Not a place I'd ever heard of in my 30 years as an island resident. Finally tracked it down and it's a tiny sand spit on Keahole Point. Not accessible or well known. Used by a few fishermen. In another section of the island, far from ANY beach but listed in the BEACHES category, we have a house tagged to Pohue Bay. Pohue Bay is not accessible except by 4wd and with permission of adjacent property owners. And no, the property owners do not give permission for you to barrel over their land in a 4wd to get to the beach. I stopped looking at that point and gave up, afraid to find more egregious mapping errors. All these location mapping errors are completely unacceptable for a platform with listings on an extremely large island, catering people wanting to book an accurate location.  

[Mark-and-Gabriela0]

Twitter!  To Airbnb, Brian Chesky and the new VP of Engineering Kamini Dandapani

[Mark-and-Gabriela0]

This new categories is a nightmare. There are a lot of properties not shown.

[Lisa34]

I just would like to say that for many years I have been a huge fan and proponent of Airbnb. I have signed new hosts, I have used the Airbnb links when I could’ve used other platforms, and I have certainly referred a number of people to use their calendar for our properties so that they could find what was appropriate time for them. I generally do not “hate on” any platform or anyone. I am trying to convey real world experience with this new rollout and give constructive feedback. However I must admit I am very frustrated!.

I have eight properties spread across three states and almost all of them are doing very poorly-almost no new business starting with May 9. We are almost exclusively receiving bookings from repeat customers. That’s it!

The only properties that seem to be doing ok are the ones outside of Nashville. I think they are getting the love because Nashville is popular  and they’re not that far away. Bookings at those properties are adequate but not as good as they have been.

I have to think based on almost 9 years of experience with Airbnb that this is some kind of oversight in understanding how this algorithm would apply to real-world scenarios and small towns. after all, Brian Chesky said that parted the intention with this rollout was to funnel people to less populated areas. However all of our properties are in such areas and none of them are showing up well in the searches. We have gone with one property alone from about 750 views during the lockdown at the beginning of Covid two 120 730 days out from this major change on the platform.

I recently did a search for our North Carolina town that is located in the mountains above Asheville. When I searched our town some of the properties showed up. However, when I clicked on any category is zoomed out and immediately showed me Gatlinburg. Thinking that maybe, just maybe, if I did a search of Gatlinburg it would show a smattering of properties in North Carolina. Of course that was not the case. None of the properties in western North Carolina showed up. They are funneling our small town business to major markets. I am concerned about all the hosts who will not be able to continue. I am also concerned about our small town and the tax revenue that they rely on because of Airbnb. I think that it has to be said when your name become synonymous with the very thing you represent you have a responsibility to your partners, the hosts. You can no longer act like this crappy up start coming up with new ideas. Announcing them the very day that you rolled them out. That is just too drastic and affect so many people when you were that large of a company.

I am by no mean saying this change does not affect major markets but since I don’t have experience with those I am just talking about smaller markets. The B markets of this world that are losing business handover fist because of this change. These are dates sitting empty that we can never get back. It is lost revenue for both host and Airbnb. I hope airbnb hears our pleas.

[Gigi169]

Very well written. I hope you will send this directly to Airbnb. They need to hear from us directly as I doubt this little community forum carries much weight.