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?

[Nancy1633]

@Lisa34 

I respectfully disagree.

Features like "kitchens" were already clearly  listed under a listing's "Amenities". 

A property's architectural design, interior design and beach, lake or mountain views were already displayed in a listing's photos. Many of us hired photographers to do so-- I had drone photography done. 

Many of us had descriptive titles highlighting our views or other unique attributes.  AirBnb removed them. Now we are "House" "Cabin" "Cottage", etc. 

Note, the criteria a traveler was looking for (kitchens, views) were clearly found on listings BEFORE the "Summer Release."  If AirBnb wanted accuracy on Categories, Hosts would have been invited to pick them. We were not, and were excluded or miscategorized. 

There is no single "main" problem.

Not only the bizarre arbitrary weeks AirBnb invites one to "Reserve", but the map which zooms far out from the search destination, and the omission of properties at the search destination, and Categories which are not fully nor correctly populated.  THAT is why listings aren't getting booked-- because they are not findable on the search engine OR they are showing arbitrary WEEKS in the future AND all descriptive titles have been wiped out.   

I don't have faith that a 'fix' is coming any time soon. This thread was buried for a reason. 

[Lisa34]

I agree there are a lot of problems and I am not sure a fix is coming, but I have to have hope that feedback will eventually be heard. Otherwise I should just hang up my shingle so to speak.

I do like the categories concept. As a person who looks for Design spaces when we travel I can attest that they are not easy to find. If you are looking for a place with Amazing Views you literally have to look at hundreds of listings, because Amazing View is different than Mountain View. Opening each listing to check is tedious, so I am hopeful this categories approach will cut down on the number of properties I have to look at when we travel.

That said I agree.  There are lots of problems with this roll out. Hosts should have been able to add themselves to the correct categories.

Right now I don’t think we will make it in the correct ones because the AI supposedly has already detected the properties, though it researches every 2 weeks, and we don’t have pictures that seem to meet their criteria even though we just had professional photo shoots done of both of our places with professional stagers just a month ago. The pictures clearly reflect these categories, yet we are still not in them. It is disheartening. We invested about $15,000 in getting our properties ready for new pictures, plus the cost of the shoot and staging. I cannot afford to do it again any time soon and why should I? I still have no idea what will trigger the AI! This is too opaque.

The other thing I just found is that the “weekend” search doesn’t seem to include properties that require 3 nights. We have required 3 nights in peak season for stays that start on Thursday through Saturday for 8 years. I guess to be included we will have to short ourselves and ask for 2 so our weekends will be shown if guests use that filter.

This is exhausting!

I have given so much feedback to Airbnb and will continue to do so, but it is overwhelming all the hiccups with this roll out. That is saying something as I have been a part of many huge roll outs in business in the past and tend to be a change agent in my professional life. I am not averse to change, which a lot of people are, but honestly this is just not working well right now and that is the bottom line.

[Louise1097]

I agree with everything you say, but I think there is a single cause behind all of this:

Air have found that they can get algorithms to sort out some simple things, and now they believe that algorithms and machine learning can solve every issue, even where there was never an issue. Host-curated data of all types has been thrown off the back of the bus, to be replaced by dumb data from dumb systems, programmed by seemingly dumb or at least clueless people. That underpins everything we are seeing on summer release.

Most ordinary properties do not feature on categories. Categories is in any case full of cr*p data. The default dates system is something that would be better designed by a toddler. Half the properties in my town have vanished from the map. Properties are being moved between towns, across the country, or between continents! We, personally, have no visibility until October, despite many empty dates, because of some dumb-ass default date rules, and they are surfacing our November -when nobody but nobody comes here in November except for funerals. The list of problems is just astonishing.

And yet no response from the people who failed to test this out before a worldwide rollout. Defies logic. 

[Natasha-and-John0]

It’s been almost a month with no response from @Airbnb  I doubt they are concerned. Which is very disappointing after a ten year partnership.

[Lisa34]

I suspect that they’re waiting for a full month of data to evaluate where they’re at with this launch. That is coming up soon. I also think that the administrators have said everything they know at this point.

[Annie1372]

@Lisa34 

I like your optimistic view.

we will keep hoping

[Eddie-And-Sandi0]

I have one property in Miami it is very centrally located.

The listing is in a quiet residential neighborhood surrounding restaurants, museums, beaches, nightlife, just a perfect area. We get outstanding reviews, 15-20 bookings a month, and plenty of views. Now we have 0-10 views, no bookings, no hope for the future, no inquiries.

Aside from the fact that they removed my nice personalized title that I worked so hard to present the listing in an attractive way.  They have given me a title with a location that has nothing to do with me or the area I am in. I decided to write to you because I agree with you and all the other hosts that have expressed our concerns yet nothing is being done. I do not see that Mr. Chesky nor the Airbnb care and I fear they will lose all these amazing Super Hosts. He made unrealistic changes not taking into account the real hosts that make this platform work so well. The categories they have created exclude so many great listings and potential experiences for guests. Where is the category for the amazing hospitality my guests can expect to receive?  The average guest wants to come and visit my place because it is in the heart of Miami, it is quiet, clean, they can easily come in and out, enjoy nice restaurants, beaches, and not pay an outrageous amount of money to visit all the sights they would like to see. These categories seem to only include mansions, luxurious pools, high end cabins with mountain views, and so many more boxes that do not allow the majority of hosts a chance. We bring in a lot of revenue to Airbnb with only one listing. The prices are astronomical for these new categories and the majority of people are not looking for this extreme luxury because for that you might as well stay at a five star hotel. Not to mention the inaccuracy of these changes. What happened to Airbnb starting with just a mattress in an apartment? Like most businesses, once the money is flowing the big fish start to eat the little fish and completely forget we exist. Airbnb was originally inspired by hosts like us trying to free ourselves and find creative ways to use what we have to not only have an income, but to share with guests our beloved city and what we do best, host! These changes make hosts like us feel not good enough. I will continue to hold on and wait for bookings however if nothing changed I guess Airbnb will become a thing of the past and I will no longer recommend it the way I once did. Please read the feedback from all of us hosts and take into consideration the damage you have done to us. Please do better. Thank you so much for reading. I am willing to do anything on my end to help as much as I can.

Sandi in Miami

[John5097]

Yesterday CEO of Expedia claims summer travel is robust. (Expedia owns VRBO)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-09/expedia-ceo-doesn-t-see-high-prices-stopping-summ...

“From what we can see of the US markets and western markets, there’s tons of pent-up demand,” Kern said in an interviewWednesday with Bloomberg Television’s Emily Chang. “We’ve seen people wanting to rebound and overspend into travel.”

Hence Airbnb default to prioritize more expensive listings. They want to upsell during busy summer season. Part of this is default to "Any week" that display availability of a week in off season of many listings, while showing availability of more expensive listings in the busy summer season. 

I was already booked out and have been able to rebook canceled trips, but it has taken longer, and I've had to make adjustments. Its been a month is this the new normal? Airbnb is prioritizing week long stays while giving its competitors its left over unbooked weekdays? 




 

[Lisa34]

I feel fortunate that we had so much already on the books before this launch. Not to sounds like a braggart, but our two properties led our small market prior to this launch. We have had no new guests book since it happened, only repeats. That is concerning. 

Also of concern, is that Airbnb seems to think their AI for the categories has fully populated them, but if that is true that means there are almost no Amazing Views or Chef’s Kitchens in NC. I know that is not the case. However, Gatlinburg, hours away from us is actively being promoted to our guests. Not to be dramatic, but they say they are trying to help smaller, less populated markets, but I don’t see how this could be the case, as the categories seem largely populated with major markets. 

Maybe guests will start to catch on that they aren’t finding properties where they want using the categories and just not use them, but that seems a shame. Meanwhile this weeklong stay default doesn’t work very well. 

I have though of changing from a 12 month booking window just so it will stop offering dates in winter, as I have weeks I need to fill in June and July right now. Also, in the mountains most people wait until closer to date of arrival to book so they can monitor the snow and road conditions. If I change to a 3 month window the AI might ding me for limiting the window but at least guests won’t be shown dates I am almost certain they will not book.

Let’s all use the feedback feature on platform and give constructive feedback to Airbnb. Mine is to get rid o f this weeklong default as it actually discourages booking by often showing some of the least desirable weeks for a property and it puts properties who have a lot of openings many times with bad ratings at the top of the search because they have a lot of open time on the calendar. Meanwhile well rated properties are at the bottom of the search.

I also think it should stop showing properties so far out of the scope. I searched for a stay next week and chose Design as a category. I was shown properties a couple hundred miles away which is fine, but then right next to those are places in South Africa, which is interesting but not at all helpful and I suspect I am not alone in thinking that creates too many properties for me to wade through in places there is little likelihood I will visit next week. If anything you should be able to filter how far you are willing to travel or if you are willing to fly so narrow the search results.

Only showing properties that have a 2 night minimum for weekends when the weekend filter is used is a problem too. If you have a Friday and Saturday available it would help Airbnb and hosts that you show up in the search, but right now only places with a 2-night minimum do. A lot of markets only book weekends so 3-nights is how we make the most of the limited season.

Both categories and I’m Flexible calendar options are a good idea, but how they are used is too narrow and needs refining.

[John5097]

I also stated all of your points earlier in this topic. I was just sharing an article of CEO of Expedia that says demand is high for the busy summer. I also started another topic requesting Any Dates be the default and not the Any Week, and the catigories not zoom out to listings hundreds of miles away. A month later and it’s still the same. 

[John5097]

Also as I mentioned I was already booked out six months in advance. I have six month window availablity and have to keep opening up another week so I have seven open nights and show up on default Any Week. So I should contact Airbnb to complain about being fully booked? They will suggest 9 or 12 month window. And isn’t going to help listings not getting any bookings. I’m sure Airbnb is flooded with complaints. Each listing is unique. If I had other listings each would have different approach. 

[Lisa34]

That is true. We have nine listings and two are doing OK. We’ve had to pretty drastically reduce the price and what they are getting last minute bookings though not many advance bookings. The rest continue to lose views even though we are now at the 30 day window so this is a compounded loss at this point.

[Lisa34]

Thank you! I will look for that thread and give that same feedback. Thank you for sharing this.

[Lisa34]

We do have a fair number of advance bookings so while I am certainly concerned about my own listings I am really concerned about those folks who have just started up or were struggling already before this. We have what we need to whether this I think but those folks are going to have a hard time of it. Anything we can do to improve the search will help all of us though.

I agree that it is hard to make the argument Airbnb when your calendar is fairly full. That said, it comes with longevity. It also gives us maybe more perspective than people who are just getting their lot listing started.

[John5097]

@Lisa34 

This was the interview that was interesting. 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2022-06-08/expedia-ceo-on-travel-outlook-video

I'm waiting to see if it changes my bookings, if I have orphaned nights, lower occupancy rates, which would be unique if guest simply aren't finding it. For me hosting is all about prevention and avoiding risk. This Summer Update and all the concerns you mentioned has prompted me to make the most drastic changes to my listing preferences. I have't yet gone live on another platform and not sure how that would play out. I always thought it would be best to be on one platform. I also offer good value to book up way in advance to attract better guest. This is totally different than other host approach. But I don't want to offer good value and get short notice bookings. To me having good value is inclusive, and my guest reflect that, as I get guest of all ages from all over. But if rates are too low with short notice it becomes higher risk. 

I think as host we all get settled into an approach with our settings, rates, etc, and didn't see major changes like this. I follow all the similar listings in my area and some only have 3 month window, so they booked up right away and never have a full week available and now have available nights thats from the recent changes. 

Its hard to know if this is more or less profitable for Airbnb but seems like it may be less profitable as too many listings aren't booking. But the interview claimed that summers were already booked out. So wait and see.