Airbnb Location For My Property Glitching - Not Available For Booking - Please Help

[Andy4204]

Has anyone had issues with not being able to find their property on the map with airbnb? Our location doesn't seem to be "sticking" and our property isn't booking at is normally has in the past. We are a super host with a lot of experience. Every 2 days, I have to call airbnb to have them update something on their end for us to see the property on the map show up again. I'm going to lose 10's of thousands of dollars if the issue persists.

Is anyone else having this issue?

[Joan2709]

@Andy4204 

Yup...there is a problem. 

When I searched for Folly Beach for 10 guests, your listing never appeared. If this just started happening, I would guess it has something to do with the 2024 Winter software release and how the algorithm determines distance from either a landmark attraction "Folly Beach" and your actual distance from it in relation to the listing's legal address. Your listing seems to be further away from "Folly Beach" but your legal address might still be Folly Beach. You can see the initial search results show all the listings clustered close to the words "Folly Beach" on the map. You appear to be further away. The map below is not Airbnb's results map, but if you look on Airbnb you'll see all the listings on the initial search results clustered around the word "Folly Beach":

This is Airbnb's initial search results map results for "Folly Beach, SC":

This is a software problem that only Airbnb can correct I'm afraid. The search algorithm is probably prioritzing the center of the city of Folly Beach, instead of the whole Folly Beach area. I'm sure there are other properties affected as well. Here's what might be difficult to correct. Something has changed with the algorithm and how it classifies your listing using the legal address and also how it returns results for "Folly Beach". Only Airbnb can correct that. The algorithm criteria is too tight for the location "Folly Beach, SC". This is probably part of the changes made to further customize guest searches in the 2024 Winter Release. 

I hope you have the listing on other platforms? Below is a search results map for another platform and you can see the listings are NOT clustered around the word "Folly Beach", but show many more listings in the initial search results map:

[Andy4204]

Thank you for this. It is extremely beneficial. I am on my 4th support specialist in 5 days and he has escalated it to the technical team. I do have VRBO, but we have ~5 bookings per year on that site versus 40-50 on AIRBNB, so we feel trapped. We can withstand a few months without revenue, but the property annual expenses are about 175,000 - 180,000. My fear is we will have to sell it. We had forecasted $300,000 in revenue after investing in $230,000 on amenity improvements last year. Does anyone have good legal representation recommendations? 

[Joan2709]

@Andy4204 

If you are listed on Vrbo, I would think you'll be getting more bookings as your Airbnb calendar will be open due to this problem. Have you double-checked the listing on Vrbo?

I just checked and you must have your Vrbo calendar not synced or have different min stays set? Dates that show available on Airbnb show NOT available on Vrbo? I would open up your dates on Vrbo while trying to resolve this issue with Airbnb. At least your listing will appear in search results and you'll get some bookings.

I searched Mar 17-19 and the listing said unavailable even though those dates are open on Airbnb? Looks like your min stay for Vrbo is 3nights and your Airbnb min stay is 2 nights. When I searched for 3 nights on Vrbo/10guests your listing appeared in the number 1 position. I would definitely change the min stay on Vrbo to 2 nights and if need be, raise your nightly rate to cover the higher fees Vrbo charges.

[Andy4204]

Thank you for your help! I can find it on VRBO search and the listing is working as intended there. We have a 3 day minimum setting. We control everything from the Guesty app so it updates both calendars-airbnb and vrbo. I disconnected the airbnb from Guesty today and tried to update the calendar within Airbnb itself and that didn't work, so it has to be something technical on their end. Unfortunately, VRBO just doesn't have as much traffic or the number of reviews we have with airbnb. 

[Joan2709]

@Andy4204 

The reason Vrbo doesn't offer as much traffic is because the majority of bookings you get were through Airbnb. This naturally makes your listing show "unavailable" on Vrbo and hence leads to less bookings on Vrbo. Since you can't be seen now most likely on Airbnb, suggest you concentrate on more bookings on Vrbo.

My suggestion is to change your Vrbo min settings to 2nights to drive some bookings and slightly raise your nightly rate, as Vrbo fees are higher than Airbnb. This will at least give you some bookings, since guests can see you on Vrbo; they can't see you on Airbnb right now. You might actually consider lowering your rate 20% below your competition right now on Vrbo to drive more bookings, as you won't be getting any bookings on Airbnb it seems. I believe this is also the slow season for beach properties. You could also offer an addl night (before or after stay) to those that book at a 30-35% discount.

I have suggested that Airbnb add a callout to the search results map to let guests know there are other listings that are available if they move the map. Alas, that hasn't been done.  I don't know why they don't do it? It's a win for them (potentially more bookings) and a win for the Host? Here is what another platform shows on their search results map view:

[Joan2709]

@Andy4204 

I'm thinking the legal aspect will be a somewhat unproductive process, as Airbnb has covered themselves on that in the Terms of Service:

I think concentrating your efforts on getting them to "fix" the algorithm for your area would yield better results. This is because they naturally will receive less booking fees if guests don't know their are other listings available they can't see due to the "clustering" effect happening. Some guests don't even know they can move the map to see more listings. Some may give up and go to a competing platform to search. This will cost Airbnb dollars, so I would think that would be a bigger incentive to fix it.

They could also know about this "clustering" and prefer to leave it that way to drive bookings to those that appear in the cluster? Not sure.

Vrbo reviews/bookings will always be less than Airbnb; especially if you are request to book on Vrbo. This is because Vrbo does NOT include your listing in the Expedia distrubution unless you are using Instant Book.