Host questions answered: Airbnb’s Summer Release

Stephanie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Host questions answered: Airbnb’s Summer Release

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Updated Jun 19, 2022

 

Just to share a quick update that we have created the promised Resource Center guidelines for listing descriptions has been published and you can read it here.

 

Hi Hosting Community, 

 

A month ago, we introduced the Airbnb 2022 Summer Release with a new way to search designed around Airbnb Categories

 

Since then, we’ve gathered feedback from thousands of Hosts through our Community Center, Host Clubs, emails, and in workshops with the Host Advisory Board and Host leaders. Thank you for your valuable comments and suggestions. 

 

Today, we want to share an update on some of the important feedback you’ve shared.  More updates will follow. 

 

You can read about them here.

 

Please continue to share your ideas and feedback as it directly assists in how we evolve our platform. 

 

Your continued support, feedback and constructive thoughts on this and many of our release features is incredibly valuable and I encourage you to continue sharing here.

 

Thanks,

Stephanie

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Please follow the Community Guidelines 

258 Replies 258

@Annie1372 @Stephanie 

The second link says if its longer than 32 characters only the first 32 will be shown on mobile devices.

"Character limits help make sure your title gets fully displayed on desktop and mobile devices. Guests on the go tend to search using mobile phones, which means only 32 characters appear. If your title is longer than 32 characters, put the most important info first.."

At least thats what it says. That's how its always been, and I already did this.

Although any abrupt changes are done without notice so who knows what's gonna happen next! 

Stephanie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

@Annie1372 

 

Thanks for sharing, it's as @John5097 says 32 characters is the suggested title amount as that is what most guests will see when viewing on mobile. But you can go up to 50 should you wish!

 

Thanks

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Please follow the Community Guidelines 

@Stephanie 

 

AirBnb's issues with our title lengths is a straw man-- our titles are not what's driving guests away and Hosts to list elsewhere.  Host bookings were fine before the Summer Release; guests on mobile phones booked-- long or short title.  Now they are not. Why? 

 

It is AirBnb's counterintuitive new search with default weeks/weekends and error-ridden IA mapping that is causing guests to leave your platform, and Hosts to lose bookings... NOT our titles. 

 

This "long titles" straw man shows that AirBnb wants to transfer blame about lost revenue onto Hosts, not on any kind of honest assessment of why guests aren't booking since the Summer Release.  

 

My title, caps and all, is just right. My hope is that AirBnb's disastrous changes to how properties are searched and booked (see VRBO) is undone. 

Stephanie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

@Nancy1633 It's more that the title is so long it isn't displayed on smaller resolution devices, so the guest doesn't get to read those extra words on mobile. 

 

Thanks

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Please follow the Community Guidelines 

WOW WOW WOW Stephanie you have missed the whole point that Nancy1633 has put across to you , she doesn't care about the titles she cares that VRBO has a better search and booking engine than airbnb , she is also right in saying that the changes have caused lost bookings , please get whoever has their head in the sand to change it back 

 

Norm 

@Stephanie   

I am a new host, 6 bookings, (only 2 stays so far) but I have had NO bookings or inquiries for weeks now. I wonder if this 'update' has affected my listing too? How do I know which category my listing has been placed in please? any help gratefully received.

 

Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

@Barbara2608 

 

Your listing is at the moment only in category "surfing".

 

A general search on "Kent", "flexible", "1 week", "8 guests" shows more then 900 results.

 

Thanks so much... SURFING hahaha  I live by a harbour full of boats!  Would you know how can I get this changed?

 

@Stephanie Where can I copy a link of your update to send to all the groups?

Stephanie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hi @Mark-and-Gabriela0 ,

 

You can post this link for the FAQs:

 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Host-questions-answered-Airbnb-s-Summer-Release/t...

 

And you can post this link for the return of Hosts listing titles:

 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Your-listing-titles-are-returning-to-search-resul...

 

Thanks,

Stephanie

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Please follow the Community Guidelines 

Please, please, airbnb!  Remove the default week on the calendar, which is always the last week of the booking window!!  Guests just want to check availability, and a default week 6 months out confuses them.  Is it not available til November?  Do I have to rent it for a week? 

 

I like to have a 6-month booking window, so a week in November shows up on the  search page for our area, and on the listing page, while other listings in my area that have a 3 month window show a week in September.  I tried changing the window to three months, and sure enough, the default week also changed.  BUT my calendar is linked Vrbo, and consequently blocked the dates there too, even though I didn't change the Vrbo booking window.  Grr.

100% agree! Mine is defaulting to off off peak for our mountain location. Almost no one plans in advance to travel to a non-ski town in the mountains  in January/February.

Joanna41
Level 2
Tulum, Mexico

Ever since airbnb did this update our bookings have dropped to ZERO on all 33 listings we manage and our calendar has been emptied out, unfortunately I will soon have to close my business due to this. I used to have nearly 100% occupancy on all listings before the update.  I have been reporting it to them since I noticed the first drop in bookings and they have given me zero solutions. 

If Airbnb is not listening to a host with 33 listings , what hope did I ever have with one listing , when will they start listening ??

 

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Joanna41 @Patricia1945 

 

I spoke to CS about this and the only 'solution' I was offered was to lower my prices, allow shorter stays and unblock dates on the calendar. I'm not going to do any of those things as I know they are not the problem.

 

The prices are already competitive, the dates that are blocked are either direct bookings or periods shorter than my minimum stay and I am not going to switch to short term stays. Anyway, according to Airbnb, stays of over one month now make up 25% of Airbnb's bookings and continue to rise (I recently read that Brian Chesky said they were up 33% or something similar), so surely I should be getting MORE bookings, not less! 

 

My lack of views/bookings are a direct result of the Summer Release. None of the above factors stopped me getting plenty of bookings right up until the moment the release was rolled out.

 

Anyway, the rep said he understood, but there was nothing else he could do to help with my views. He said that the engineering team are working on glitches to do with the Summer Release. I have no idea which of the glitches they are working on or how long it's going to take...

 

However, I did notice that one of my listings is now suddenly showing higher in search results and the views are slowly starting to improve. Perhaps it's just a coincidence. The other two are still buried in search results and the views almost non existent.