Categories have arrived. Now how do we get put in them?

[James2743]

Looking this morning on the app I noticed that a new section in listing has appeared, Categories! So we can all see what categories our properties are in.

In my case none.......

Despite my place being in the countryside bordering a nature reserve, in the middle of a national park,  and with a 6 storey windmill in the garden it doesn't appear in the countryside category, the national park category or the windmill category.

Other than the standard update your listing quote (which I have done a dozen times in the last few months), can you tell me how we get our categories updated please.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@James2743 I believe you need to contact Customer Support and ask them to modify the category. Do let us know if it works.

[James2743]

@Mike-And-Jane0 

I've just sent them the following. I will keep updating as I go.

Hi

I noticed the new categories section has gone live

My property isn't listed in any categories. I would like it to be added to Countryside, National Park and Windmill categories please

Countryside

We border the Ludham - Potter Heigham Marshes is a 101.5-hectare (251-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest. Part of the site is a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I, and a National Nature Reserve. It is part of the Broadland Ramsar site and Special Protection Area, and The Broads Special Area of Conservation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludham_-_Potter_Heigham_Marshes

National Park

Potter Heigham is a village and civil parish on the River Thurne in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated 12 mi (19 km) north-east of the city of Norwich on the A149 road, and within the Broads National Park.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potter_Heigham

Windmill

https://www.norfolkmills.co.uk/Windmills/potter-heigham-towermill.html

https://airbnb.com/h/millhousebungalow

Thank you

[James2743]

I have had my reply already..... Not much use at all.

Airbnb Support10:34

Hi James,

Congratulations on being a SuperHost with Airbnb. Thank you for your dedication to providing exceptional hospitality. My name is ****** Support Ambassador with Airbnb.

I'm sorry to hear that your listing was not listed as part of the new categories that we have introduced earlier. To be selected for a Category, listings on Airbnb go through a curation process. They’re evaluated using machine learning to analyze information such as titles, descriptions, photo captions and reviews. Listings can appear in multiple Categories if they meet the criteria.
To improve your chances of being included in a specific Category, make sure your listing’s amenities and features are complete and up to date. If possible, it’s also a good idea to have high quality photography of the key features of your space.

Here’s a handy guide on how to take great photos of your space using your smartphone:
airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/221
Listings are categorized algorithmically so it isn’t possible to categorize your own listing. However, you can increase your likelihood of appearing in a Category by making sure you have selected all of the relevant amenities and by highlighting them with front-page worthy photos.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Stephanie I am sure an admin on here gave advice recently that Customer Support should be contact if the categorisation is wrong. I may, of course, be making this up though!

[Stephanie · Accepted solution]

Yes and that admin... was me! Thanks @Mike-And-Jane0 Reading this thread with raised eyebrows.

@James2743 I'll DM you privately and we can take a look at your Categories.

Thanks for sharing here

[James2743]

@Stephanie 

I just got this back from Support.......I do look forward to your DM

Airbnb Support11:50

I understand James but, there is no manual intervention to have your listing added on those categories. To improve your chances of being included, Hosts should ensure their lists of amenities and features are complete and current, that key features of their spaces are clearly depicted with high-quality photography, and that the listing location is accurate and precis but, there’s no guarantee that every listing will be included.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@James2743 Its strange because one of our 3 listings (all in the same building) is not in the Historic Homes category. Just for fun I sent a message to support and they rang me to say they would contact the appropriate department and ask for our category to be updated.

@Stephanie I can only assume that Derbyshire hosts are favoured over Norfolk hosts.

[James2743]

@Mike-And-Jane0 

@Stephanie  has been great and has been in touch already. Fingers crossed it will all get sorted soon.

[Trude0]

Fingers crossed, and please keep us posted!

I contacted CS last autumn, to try and get into the Cabin category. I’m in the Tiny Homes category, which is correct, but this term I think is not as widely used as Cabin. And as I had noticed that several of my ”competitors”, with listings very similar to mine (modern tinyhouses in gardens), are in both categories, I thought I should be, too.

CS turned me down, with an ”it has been determined that your listing does not meet the category requirements for the Cabins category at this time”. I asked them what these requirements were, and how other properties basically identical to mine, could be Cabins (and Tiny Homes). No reply. 

[James2743]

Hi @Stephanie 

We’ve had partial success as I’ve been added to the windmill category.

However still no joy with National park or countryside categories though.

Is there anything else you can do or suggest?

thanks

[Jon233]

I just copied a listing after the instructions of Airbnb and lost all the categories. The Designer is asking that I add her name back on the listing but I can no longer do it since I lost the categories when I duplicated the listing. 

I also have called customer service 3x and they just regurgitate scrips back. 

I have publications from the news and influencers that I wanted to also add back into that part that I think are important. 

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Stephanie 

In February I asked to be added to the Design category as our home is designed and built by a Frank Lloyd Wright/ Taliesen architect in traditional/authentic organic architecture style. Architecture students and professionals as well as Wright Taliesen Fellowship  Architecture fans love to stay with us and spend time in this amazing designed home. 

A helpful CS person succeeded in not getting us in Design category, but for some reason all the 4 other categories we were listed in by the system were dropped. These four are Amazing Views, Farm, Off Grid and Countryside. Someone is currently "working on the situation" but my daily monitoring has not revealed any improvement, and it has been close to a month that we have no categories at all. There is some glitch going on that we hope is unique to us, and we'd love to have it fixed. It would seem that we're caught in the "wait a week" department, for what should be an easy fix. All the CS people so far have been very pleasant but nothing is happening. 

Could you give us a comment please, on what is this glitch? 

Thanks so much! Kitty

[Stephanie]

I'll look into this for you @Kitty-and-Creek0 

Thanks

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Stephanie the system does sort of work if you contact customer service. All our apartments are now in the historic homes category. 1 of 3 is in the countryside category which is odd as they are all in the same building!

The sad thing is no one contacts us to say if they agree/disagree with the category we have asked for so we just need to check regularly and see what changes.