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?

[Huma0]

@Darrin10 

I just searched for the 'design' category and zoomed in on my neighbourhood on the map. Nothing showed up there or nearby, but I could see some other places in South London. I really zoom in on my neighbourhood, then switch to list view. It says there are no results. I then click on 'nearby' places option.

Guess what came up? Listings in completely different parts of the country, miles and miles away and hardly anything in London and none of the ones that were showing on the map in South London. Worst that that, the majority of the listings that came up were in France! At no point was I searching for listings in France but in London, so why has it moved me there?

I click on the filter for private room to see what happens. One listing. Literally one listing comes ups. At least that one happened to be in London.

This search function is absolutely shockingly bad. A a guest I would be so frustrated.

[Mary3607]

I did the same. Had to zoom out about 200 miles to find something, which was ONE place in the Austin area, and it was a plain vanilla condo, kind of like a sparsely furnished 3 star hotel room, IMO. I wouldn’t stay there, and it’s overpriced. There are tons of high design homes and apartments in Austin and San Antonio that should have come up, but nope, not a one. This is worse than useless, it’s a disaster for those of us trying to make a living. 

[Lisa34]

The design category is especially mysterious! There are homes included that are quite beautiful. However we have artwork in our home that was made by artist with work and the Smithsonian, the mint museum, the Renwick, the metropolitan museum of art in NY… our homes were designed by a well known designer and architect for our region and niche (high-end craft).  All of these things were explained to Airbnb and we’re still not in the design category. That said I’m not entirely sure I want to be in theaters category as we might attract a different sort of guest so it doesn’t seem worth the conversation. 

[Susan1188]

@Darrin10  @Sybe 
Thank you for summarizing this!

(1) the zooming out when category is picked

My area is along the beach.  Me, and *all* of my hundreds of direct neighbors are beachfront!

Yet when you select the area, and then select "beachfront", it zooms out and proposed properties 1 hour away!  Estepona is not Marbella!  Mijas and Fuengirola are not Marbella!  Marbella is expensive, for a reason!  Microclimate, infrastructure, lifestyle, etc!!!

Why should it zoom out and show several properties hours away, when there are thousands of beachfront in the original proposed area?  Seems to me price is only criteria.

(2) Homes not in a category

I understand that Airbnb might want to verify if a category is true.  Surely some people on the other side of the highway try to cheat and say they are beach front.  But this is easy to do based on reviews and photos.

- hosts should be able to know how to see if they are in the correct category and  take action to get their category corrected!
- hosts should be able to take action in a precise way, not just "improve your photos, description, service, price".

[Huma0]

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@Susan1188 wrote:

@Darrin10  @Sybe 
Thank you for summarizing this!

(1) the zooming out when category is picked

My area is along the beach.  Me, and *all* of my hundreds of direct neighbors are beachfront!

Yet when you select the area, and then select "beachfront", it zooms out and proposed properties 1 hour away!  Estepona is not Marbella!  Mijas and Fuengirola are not Marbella!  Marbella is expensive, for a reason!  Microclimate, infrastructure, lifestyle, etc!!!

Why should it zoom out and show several properties hours away, when there are thousands of beachfront in the original proposed area?  Seems to me price is only criteria.

(2) Homes not in a category

I understand that Airbnb might want to verify if a category is true.  Surely some people on the other side of the highway try to cheat and say they are beach front.  But this is easy to do based on reviews and photos.

- hosts should be able to know how to see if they are in the correct category and  take action to get their category corrected!
- hosts should be able to take action in a precise way, not just "improve your photos, description, service, price".

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So, we still can't see which categories we are in unless we search those categories for our listings. Even then, they might not show up at first. You need to really zoom in on your location to see whether you are in that category.

It is now possible though to maybe get your listing in the correct categories or have it removed from incorrect categories. Airbnb has just put a team onto this apparently. You can call CS and put in a request and they are supposed to review it and get back to you with an answer within seven days. That's not to say they will agree, but at least it's going to be person looking at this instead of AI (which is clearly not working). 

I am giving this a go with my listings and will report back. I suggest others try and let us know the result.

[Mark-and-Gabriela0]

Unfortunately CS  don’t do anything, I’ve been requesting to change my apartment from Tropical to Beach and they changed it to Condo.

honestly, I don’t think someone who goes to Tulum on vacation will go for vacation to a Condo …

frustrated and tired of calling them…

our messages went down here too hmm

[Anonymous]

Is anyone at Airbnb aware that some people travel without cars?  If you're going to show me search results for lots of places far from where I was looking for, I'd like to at least be able to narrow it down to places one can reach by some form of public transportation. For all the talk about Sustainability and Accessibility, that's a huge blind spot.

[Molly396]

@AnonymousI love this idea. Locally we have a walkability score. It is a number 0-100 that determines walking proximity to errands, schools, etc and also gives a public transportation score. I would love to see categories that highlight city central listings like this. The new categories seem to favor more rural properties. 

[Anonymous]

@Molly396  It's potentially great for rural properties in lesser-known areas; that's something I can really support! But they totally missed an opportunity to promote more environmentally responsible travel and highlight the interesting places travelers can reach by train or bus.

Walkability of the location would also be a great filter - Walkscore is now available globally for urban and rural areas alike; that data is right there for the taking even if hosts don't input it.  Similar tools exist for measuring transit mobility.

[Sybe]

@Anonymous @Molly396 A walkability score sounds like such a healthy and eco-friendly idea. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Mary3607]

@Anonymous I have a rural property in a lesser known area and this is ruining my business. So, no, not that.  I like your idea about the walk scores though. It could be very helpful for urban properties. 

[Anonymous]

@Mary3607  I don't know what it's like in the intriguingly named Utopia, Texas, but here in Europe there are plenty of tiny rural villages that are very walkable and easy to reach from major cities by train. And there are also rural places where you really need a car for everything. The problem is, you don't really know which is which just by looking at a map or listing search results. That's something that could be fixed.

[Huma0]

@Molly396 

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@Molly396 wrote:

The new categories seem to favor more rural properties. 

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Well, that would tie in with their whole rationale of driving people away from the more saturated areas. I don't think it's a mistake, but it's still stupid...

[Lisa34]

I agree. I was searching for a design house in Indiana or somewhere in that region and was showing properties in South Africa.

[Laura2592]

I said this in another thread but it bears repeating.

My old listing had no pool. There was no pics of a pool nor did it mention a pool. I would get guests who asked if we had a pool. We did not. (I believe this was the result of the last search "update" where it would show up for guests who selected pools because there were not any listings with pools in my area.)

Eventually enough guests asked that the bot started messaging me, asking me if my pool was shared or private. Again, I had no pool. I had no plans for a pool. There was no choice to tell the bot that this was the case, just a choice of shared or private.

How will this work when the bots control the search and individual listing categories? Won't this be ripe for a guest to claim "not as described" and get a refund under AirCover? Wouldn't it be better to allow the actual property owners to determine what amenities are featured and correct erroneous information?