I think we’ve all heard of the issues associated with Airbnb’s new functionality “Categories” released last month. Those have been previously well documented within this group. And while I had heard of issues related to map searching and properties appearing and disappearing at random… I was a bit of a sceptic… that was until this morning.
As I get ready to relist our property for the summer season in the Peak 7 neighborhood of Summit County, CO… I thought I would do a little experiment. In the screenshots attached to this post… all of the search criteria (dates, # of guests, category) and filters (bedrooms, beds, hot tub, price range) are the same. Watch what happens in the blue box as I nudge the map a couple millimeters at a time. Be mindful that there are relevant properties in that blue box.
SCREENSHOT 1
Map area roughly lines up with Airport Rd (Breckenridge) to the east and covers a large percentage of the Peak 7 neighborhood going west. Only 3 listings are shown.
SCREENSHOT 2
I nudged the map a couple millimeters further west… Airport Rd falls off the map to the east. The same 3 listings are still shown.
SCREENSHOT 3
I nudged the map a couple more millimeters further west. Now I get 4 new listings displayed. Please keep in mind that these 4 listings should have been displayed in the first 2 screenshots as they were within the field of view of the map. Also notice that the original 3 listings are now gone… even though they are still in the field of view of the map.
SCREENSHOT 4
I zoomed out to pickup some of downtown Breckenridge… plus the base ski areas of Peak 8 and Peak 7. My price range (less than $267/night) is probably excluding most of the base area listings as well as downtown Breckenridge… but it’s interesting that I am now seeing 16 listings for the Peak 7 neighborhood… which is probably about the right number. What’s crazy is that most of these 16 listings should have also shown up in the previous 3 screenshots
Does anyone have comments on this or additional information on this issue?