From terrible to completely ridiculous.

[Robin4]

Having just read the 'Summer Release' update link I thought I would check out how much feedback had been taken on board from the first month of the changes to search criteria.  I wish I hadn't....searching for a listing is now complete chaos!

When I bring up a search page now, this morning 12/06/2022 I can't even search my country of Australia any more, let alone a specific area.

Here are my search options..........

The only search box I am faced with is 'Where',  and clicking that brings up 6 general region boxes.

and clicking on the area boxes does absolutely nothing but at least now brings up a destination option. But it took me a while to find that option....guests are going to find this hard to tolerate, particularly those who have used the booking process before.

My bookings have fallen away to zero over the past few weeks and I can't see that there will be any improvement until we get back to the situation where a guest could simply search an area, availability, nightly price without having to jump through all these hoops.

Cheers........Rob

[Helen744]

@JJJ48 we are trying to figure it out. Like everyone else . There seems to be a huge  shift all over .,  but funnily all at once. I  now put it down to something  that we will not find out about for a long while but believe me hosts are being hung out to dry . As you have three listings it may take you a while to catch up but eventually it will affect everyone .H

[JJ48]

@Helen744  Well, it feels like there's always something. That's why I decided to diversify and only keep the one for short-term rentals. And it was too much work to have three anyway. I was over it. 

[Helen744]

JJ48 I think a lot of people have been feeling that push for a while as guests seemed to become pickier and not to read listings or crossing over from other types of listings like hotels . This ill advised change from Airbnb has changed it from user friendly to just difficult and its like a super highway built over all the villages. Everyones on it but they still cannot book anything in their village town or mountain that they want.A lot of people frankly are leaving or frightened . H

[Debra300]

@JJ48,

You've made some good points, and do seem to genuinely want to see multiple viewpoints.  I am fortunate to have a few spaces that we rent, but don't lose sight of the fact that there are many hosts who rent for survival and not as a business venture, because it helps them to keep their only home or deal with the rapidly rising inflation, and they don't have the option to diversify multiple listings. 

[Rebecca181]

It has been my experience that when an 'improvement' is made, it is made to benefit Airbnb, and possibly guests. Rarely (if ever) the hosts. It will be interesting to see down the road just how this latest search engine change will benefit them (the suspense is killing me! )

[Wende2]

@Nancy1633

Word.!

[Vivienne36]

I’m booked up to jan 23 now. 

[Robin4]

@JJ48 

Yes JJ I did come across that but, I didn't realise it initially. To start with I was shocked that they would actually bugger around with the search page yet again to take it even further away from what we have always had, and when I clicked the region drop down, nothing happened and the only way I could get to my area was to click 'show map' icon at the bottom of the page and drag the map to my area.

I started a scathing new conversation here, hence the title of this thread really launching into the programmers and when I went back and had another go at a listing search I did see the 'search Destinations' tab come up so I hurriedly came back here and modified the text of my post before my editing time of 40 minutes elapsed......which is why the post seemed a bit irrational, but JJ, think about what is happening!

Ok, so it is still there, we are experienced hosts and are used to these continual program changes, but they still throw us until we actually work them out. 

What do you think happens to the guest?

They open a search to a totally new search page where even the country they want to view is not displayed any more, just that 6th of the world and lots of quirky island, yurt, tiny cabin, tree houses are featured. They want to search for private home/entire apartment......no, not a search option any more! All they get is....... Camping, OMG, the Arctic, Designs, Surfing, Lakefront, Caves, Golfing, Castles, Windmills, Barns, Shepherds Huts, Minsus, Skiing,  Desert, Casa Particulares.....oh it goes on and on but not an 'entire home/apartment' which 80% of guests are looking for!

JJ it is ridiculous, nothing short of, and that is why our bookings have gone through the floor....guests just look at it and go, 'what th' and move on to another site where they can actually book what they want, not look at some sort of bloody travel brochure.

Airbnb grew because it helped hosts help themselves, it taught ordinary people like you and I JJ to become hosts....and in the process grew.

Now they are off chasing moonbeams and are actively destroying the very basis of their success.

But the one thing you learn about Airbnb over the years....they will never admit they are wrong, the most they will do is tell you to 'tough it out', we hear you  and things will get better!

From hosts point of view they are fast running out of options!

Cheers........Rob

[JJ48]

I'm sorry, I'm so confused. The search bar looks the same as always. In your photo, your cursor is actually sitting in the search bar and all you have to do is type in your destination.  And you only have to go to the filters to tick on "entire place", it's still there in the same place as before. You can also search for superhost, free cancelation, pool,  accessibility features, etc as before, exactly the same. 

I've recently booked a couple of listings and everything is where it used to be but there is some extra stuff, additional stuff but it's not instead.  And it's neat and tidy in a line below the search bar.  I wish I had the lifestyle to just choose a region but I don't so I just type in my destination like I always have. And then I go to filters and tick off superhost, free cancelation and entire place and sometimes pool. 

If you hadn't included a screenshot I'd think that we had two different websites but what you posted is the same as what I see.  How can we have such different interpretations of the same page?

[Robin4]

@JJ48 

OK, up until a year ago you would type into the search bar 'Airbnb Holiday Rentals' and this box would appear......

You would type in the area you wished to search and then this search page would appear.....

You didn't have to set filter after filter just to get to the search area you wanted....... just, Start your search....type in a general location and, bingo, you were there. It was at that point that you could set property, number of guests, pricing and any other relevant filters,  and the algorithm that governed property search placement responded to.....'Activity'! The more activity you had on your site the  more prominently it was displayed in search rankings.

Then about a year ago this promotional stuff started to creep into that initial search page, but it wasn't enough to make a guests search hard.....

At least you still had that 'Start your Search' box.....now poor hosts were just encouraged to allow dogs on beds and other guests fantasies!

Look at it now! it's a complete convoluted disaster! Put yourself in the guests shoes, they don't know what on earth to do any more. You do because, you are a host and dealing with it all the time but JJ, you just have to open your eyes and look what is happening, hosts views and booking are drying up because guests are confused with the number of options that are being thrown at them now and are not even trying.

If it was booking issue JJ, the views would still be there....guests would be navigating their way around the search pages but, we have all lost most of our views....potential guests are just not looking any more because, it is too hard. You can't argue with statistics JJ.

Cheers.......Rob

@Suzanne302  @Branka-and-Silvia0  @Nancy1633  @Heather1086 

[Heather1086]

@Robin4 I agree with everything you have said... I think there is something else going on as well. I don't think (from my quick playing around this morning) found that my house wasn't even showing up in searches when I went with random dates. 

The other change that is not good is that my customized title with information about the house is no longer listed in the search... it just blandly says "home in Sunriver". I did find that I am in the cabin category (with a different picture of the exterior)  and also countryside (which is a weird category considering the area). I have no clue how the categories are determined either.

This afternoon I went through and got my VRBO listing up to date and lowered the pricing in an attempt to wean away from airbnb if this isn't fixed.

[Robin4]

@Heather1086 

Heather a number of us are doing this and pursuing other hosting options. I didn't want to, I have had a great relationship with Airbnb, but the roadblocks they have put in the way of that great relationship over the past year has seen me look to other hosting options.

All my July, half my August and September are now blocked to Airbnb bookings. I cannot continue to give unbridled support to someone who is not going to acknowledge and return that support.

That business could have been Airbnb's, I am still getting it, just that Airbnb are not in the equation!

We are running a business and when something happens that compromises that business we can't say, 'oh well we will just sit around and wait till they put in a few patches or it gets fixed!'

Airbnb have continually told us how important we hosts are, but the world runs on actions, not words!

Cheers.......Rob

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Robin4  it must have been / is a temporary glitch, here is what I see when I click on "where" .

I can write where I want to go and below are my recent searches next to "search by region"

[JJ48]

@Branka-and-Silvia0  Yes that's it. It's the same search bar. And it was the same in Robin's photo. His cursor was in the search box in his photo. He could just type from there.  I was so grateful that he posted the photo because the discussion made me think I wasn't seeing the same thing, but I am. 

[Robin4]

@JJ48 

Hey JJ, you have to cut me a bit of slack, I am 78 years old and definitely not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and I probably jumped the gun in not checking out the new options before sounding off, but what I would like you to consider.

This is twice within two months that Airbnb have chosen to alter the format of their search page and each alteration has moved the process of searching that bit further from what it has traditionally been. 

I am a target market........ the vast majority of my guests (80% of them) want to stay one night for a wedding, a get-away in the hills from the city for a 2 night stay,  come to see the in-laws for a night or two while travelling through, a three day placement at the local hospital, to attend a concert at 'Ikaria'.......they don't want to browse, they are search specific.

They are not the slightest bit interested in how many types of accommodation Airbnb make available!

We have a large hardware chain of stores throughout Australia called 'Bunnings'! You can't buy what you want from Bunnings, you can buy what Bunnings are prepared to sell you, and two can be totally different! And Airbnb are becoming the same, you can't search without difficulty for what you want, your search priority will be for what Airbnb are prepared to promote!

Cheers........Rob