Beach category criteria

[Louise1477]

Does  anyone know what the criteria is for beach category? A category of golf was just assigned to my listing. I think one time in the entire time I have had my space somebody brought golf clubs. And they didn’t even golf. I would guess the golf course is about at least 5 to 10 miles from my house. Almost every single visitor who comes to my house wants to go to the beach, but beach was denied as a category for my space. I am a five minute drive to the beach.

[Joelle43]

Hello @Louise1477 

You'll read in the link below how to make an appeal through Elevate to try and get your listing in the beach category and you'll discover that others have faced the same situation.  Being placed in the correct category has become a hit and miss affair lately so be warned but patience and persistance can make the difference😉

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Ask-about-your-listing/Rejected-AirBNB-Categories/m-p/1920590

Good luck!

Joëlle

[Joan2709]

@Louise1477 

@Joelle43 provided a link to a thread about the same issue. The beach category keeps coming up as the one most problematic, but there are other categories like "National Park" and "Camping" that have gone awry as well. I guessing it has to do with the Ai computer coding Elevate is using. I do know that the Location Card/Section of the listing does have alot to do with it, but is not always the culprit. Not many guests use the Category features as they search by location/city and dates most often, but "Beach" is one of the more commonly used categories, so having it not function correctly is problematic. It does look like the AI is confusing "beach" with "beachfront". Since we don't know what Airbnb/Elevate are using as far as distance from the beach to decide if the listing qualifies for "beach" or "beachfront" it's hard to know. I do suggest Hosts near the beach use exact/specific location (not approximate). It looks like you are using approximate indicated by the shading around your map pin? Be sure to turn on the address privacy for cancllation slider.

When a listing has been approved for "beachfront" you'll see the Airbnb callout "XXmin walk to beach" and name of the beach . Those that appear as "Beach" don't have that, so I'm guessing the AI has some sort of criteria for deciding distance to the "Beach" and whether it qualifies?

When checking some listings that are in the "beach" category, some had exact location, and some have approximate location? IDK...it's a mystery. The problem is Airbnb is using a 3rd party vendor for categories (Elevate) and it adds another layer of complexity when trying to determine where the problem is. "Too many cooks in the kitchen" as it were. I'm guessing Elevate is using some sort of location/attraction database they are using to determine categories and of course, the database can be wrong. One Host mentioned the AI was adding the National Park category to listings because a public park (not a National Park) had the title "Landscape Park".

[Elisa]

Hi @Louise1477 😊, 

Thank you for asking this specific question here, it’s really interesting!

What do you think about Joan's and Joelle's comments? Did they help you?

Warm regards ‌🌻‌,