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

Andy4204
Level 2
Dallas, TX

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

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?

3 Replies 3

@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":

 

Joan2709_0-1737392402117.png

 

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

Joan2709_3-1737393185721.png

 

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:

 

Joan2709_2-1737392811720.png

 

 

 

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? 

@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.