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?

[Kathlin0]

My listing is in Spain, 100% 5* reviews, high season and 0 new bookings for last few months! What is happening? I had more bookings during covid. 

[Mark-and-Gabriela0]

@Kathlin0 unfortunately since the new release in May of Categories 80% of the properties are hidden, it doesn’t matter if you’re a Superhost (5 years my side non stop) or not.

We have been complaining since May about it… TOTAL SILENCE! 

Example Tulum has 95% in hotels and 20% occupancy in Airbnb, I had for the las 4 years 97% of my properties… so crazy I had to block one day before and after each book to give us time to maintain the apartments. Mostly apartments shown are high end!

i have a beautiful Penthouse with private AMAZING pool, private terrace with Bbq, the first category they put it … it was under TROPICAL (Please let me know who looks for Tropical when you want to go to the beach and my apartments are located in a Beach Town), now they told me my apartments are under Condo ( again, who looks for a Condo when you want to go to the beach???) NONSENSE 

now between the 2 apartments I have 3 booking for the next 12 months … SAD 

it’s sad how they don’t talk about it

how they ignore hosts who work sooo hard to keep the business going.

opening a Whatsapp between us I think it will be the solution 

[Nancy1633]

Honestly,  I suggest Hosts leave the platform or at least move listings to other platforms.

Expecting AirBnb to change is like sticking with the boyfriend who beats you.  Your businesses are bruised and bleeding.   If he really cared, he'd listen. Your properties would go back on the map.  Those idiotic "available weeks" in 2023 would disappear.  The generic titles in bold would be gone, replaced by your original titles.  Your bookings would come back. 

But there is no indication he's listened nor cares. No, he's not gonna change.  

I am starting to get bookings on VRBO- three so far.  Not a lot, but hoping VRBO picks up once reviews start coming in.   

[Mark-and-Gabriela0]

@Nancy1633 @Airbnb 

hi Nancy

you’re totally right, it’s like sticking to a toxic boyfriend…

I put my apartments in VRBO too slower, but it’s the beginning.

[Jennifer2682]

I'm on VRBO and Houfy.  

[Mark-and-Gabriela0]

 **[Private conversation removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

My dear fellow hosts and Superhost,

if you’ve ever felt since May you are not being supported by Airbnb, here is a probe how they copy and paste messages

I’ve been dealing with

**[Name hidden due to privacy concerns - Community Center Guidelines]

and my name is Gabriela 

they called me Sally and Another one replied 

[Jamie206]

He probably doesn't answer his own email but it's worth a try.

**

**[E-mail address removed due to safety reasons - Community Center Guidelines]

[Mark-and-Gabriela0]

interesting article

https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/alternatives-to-airbnb/

[Jennifer2682]

I'm going to add Houfy to that list of alternatives.  Very similar to the old Airbnb, but hosts and guests work together directly, which gives hosts so much more control... and there are no service fees for hosts or guests!  

[Huma0]

@Jennifer2682 

Does anyone actually get bookings on Houfy? 

I signed up about two years ago and have never had a single enquiry. Nor have I heard from any other hosts who have gotten bookings there. I know a start up needs time to start up, but really? Two years and not a single message even though my listing  is much lower priced than the rest of the stuff on there.

I don't know how it is outside of London, but if you look at the listings on Houfy, there is something seriously dodgy going on with the pricing. It's just insane.  Also, I am pretty sure that most of the listings on there are owned by a handful of hosts. The listings in London at least...

Still waiting for a viable alternative here that covers homeshares in the UK.

[Jennifer2682]

Yeah, I had high hopes, but I haven't gotten anything through them yet.  There are only a couple of listings in my area, but the pricing looks legit, so I don't know what's going on there with the pricing of UK listings. As far as the lack of bookings, I just think people don't know about options other than Airbnb and VRBO.  Houfy does literally zero advertising, and compared to Airbnb's shiny ads all over the place, I can see why they wouldn't be able to compete.  On the "Say Yes to Houfy" Facebook page, there ARE hosts who are getting some bookings, but they seem way too random to count on.  I'm starting to get bookings again through Airbnb and I have focused a bit more on VRBO, just steadfastly paddling to stay afloat.  

[Denice0]

@Gigi169 Are you getting any bookings for your gateway-to-the-national-park-listing yet?  As we discussed our Superhost listings were being hidden while Air pushes the less desirables on their uninformed travelers.  This shows little respect for hosts or guests.  Manipulating / misleading what listings show on a nat'l park search, so travelers book properties 2 hours from the parks first.  Then once they've increased bookings, for that specific area / category (bad location, not really a superhost), to meet their summer rollout goal, they release the Superhosts that are dependably bookable, but with a much shorter window to get booked.  Rolling the dice that the superhost listings will still book.

That's my guess how "AI / the summer rollout" is programmed.  My metrics  for trends in my area are "the average booking is 26 days out, searches in my area are up 49% from last year ( I tried to insert it and got the message "you do not have permission to upload images"  OK).    Air controls when my property shows on a map, search, or filter and often only 1 0f 3 listings is visible.  The categories make owners searches, as well as guest searches, for properties time consuming chaos.   Though I think,  this has always been the case with OTA's that searches keep getting worse, Air is really buckling down now for maximum profit and control.

I have gotten 4 new bookings in July - for August and September.  Filling the calendar may be painfully slow - only 26 days out or less - even though searches are up 49%. 

[Gigi169]

@Denice0 @I am literally 4 minutes from the national park, a superhost with 140 5star reviews and yet the properties 2 hours away from the park are the ones showing up. I’m not even in the national park tab even though my title has the national park in it. So nothing has changed. I am dismally slow and have very few bookings this summer despite our island having the highest number of tourists to date. (And no hotels in our area) 

So yeah it is def them screwing us. I have done nothing but upgrade and work harder to be a desirable accommodation. 

Beyond frustrating. I put all my eggs in their basket and didn’t build a presence on other platforms because I was so happy with Airbnb. I have made them plenty of money over the years and this is my reward. 

Hard not to be bitter about the whole thing. They are making millions by the day so it’s not like they were this poor, struggling little company… just seems like corporate greed at this point. I have reached out about this multiple times and each time they put it back on me and take no responsibility at all for it and offer no fixes. The support person couldn’t even find my listing when he looked for it. 

Just heart breaking to work so hard and be so successful at something then have it just taken from you in this way. 

They can’t just blame the algorithm because they created it. 

I don’t know what else to do to appear in searches.  

Thanks for your response and for your insights. It’s nice to be able to talk about it at the least. 

I wonder if I had a grand piano if that would help. 🙄

[Emilie]

Hi @Gigi169 

Sorry to hear your listings don't seem to appear in a fitting Category! I wanted to let you know that the process has recently evolved and if you contact the Support team now, they will be able to look into this for you. 🙂

Thanks, 

Emilie

[Gigi169]

@Emilie Who specifically should I speak with?  I have spent literally hours with customer support and nothing has changed. When I open National Parks, most of the listings are not even in the area. Hours away. There are only a few actually near the national park. And mine (4 min away, superhost with 4.99) does not appear in the search. Guests don’t know they are booking a stay hours away. This is a HUGE oversight on Airbnb. I have yet to have anyone in customer support make any sense about any of it. 
Is there someone above or beyond the typical third party customer service response team that has the capacity to actually change anything?  

And thank you for responding at least. I was surprised that no one from Airbnb has been responding to any of us here as we are in turmoil over this.