Airbnb Lakefront Icon Shows House that isn't lakefront (host rant on Airbnb icon)

[Peggy-And-Mike0]

Hi, we are hosts and work hard to get visibility for our property. It's lakefront, yet when I go to the Airbnb icon at the top of the search on the home page (as if I'm a guest) and click on "Lakefront" one of the top listings is a nearby property that isn't lakefront.  I've had at least one conversation with Customer Service about the inaccuracy but nothing has happened. It costs a lot to buy lakefront and having Airbnb deliberately misclassify a listing after being notified is beyond frustrating. Even the listing says it's not lakefront so why would Airbnb mislead guests????  Any recommendations on how to get this addressed? 

[Peggy-And-Mike0]

This is the listing: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/20166046?adults=1&category_tag=Tag%3A8522&children=0&infants=0&search_m...

[Pat271]

@Peggy-And-Mike0  I think these category groupings are performed by AI software, so millions of properties are sorted into different categories by checking keywords, scans of the photos, and other criteria. My guess is that the software detected a lake in one or more of the property’s photos and placed it in the lakefront category.

I agree that this should be corrected, but with millions of properties being automatically sorted into the different categories, I would bet that it is a tall order for a human to sift through each listing, looking for inaccuracies. I’d also bet that people often call Airbnb with false information about the legitimacy of a competitor’s property (not you, of course), so Airbnb has to insure that any changes are justified.

Airbnb’s algorithms for categorization of properties are still in their infancy, resulting at times in inaccuracies and nonsensical results. Such is the nature of complicated software. Hopefully over time, the algorithms will become more accurate, fine-tuned, and correct in terms of how they are ranked and displayed. Some people are having trouble getting Airbnb to display their listings at all.

[Peggy-And-Mike0]

I agree the algorithm created inaccuracies, however, I gave Customer Service the details so they didn't have to sort through them. At this point I'm wondering what else I could be doing since it has been months with no action. 

[Lorna170]

@Peggy-And-Mike0  CS does not have the ability to change the category groupings.

It took 6 months for my CABIN, with the word CABIN in the title, CABIN in the descriptive text and multiple pictures of my CABIN on the website before the AI would assign it to the Cabin category after the summer update.  No CS agent could assign my cabin to the cabin category, so IMO, no CS agent is going to resolve the mistake made by the AI for the bogus lakefront listing.

[Peggy-And-Mike0]

Not surprised at all by your experience. The summer software update has been awful in many ways. And I knew that CS was a long shot so I came here to see if other hosts had suggestions beyond CS.