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

[Robin4]

@Mark116 

Mark you can't simply search for listings by dragging the map the way you used to be able to do. If you do that, all it will display are the properties in that particular default search category.

To elaborate, you type in 'Search Airbnb Properties' and a main screen will come up with 'Islands'. If you try to drag the map to Florence it will show you any island listings in Florence........ which as you found out is, none, with only 25 Island listing for the entire county of Italy.

Where I am happy Mark, now (as  of yesterday) you can just hit 'Region' then 'Search Destinations', put in your desired location, dates and, all property types will be displayed in that area, regardless of which default category is on the main search screen. You don't now have to select a property type from either the main screen or the 56 category options. 

If you try this method for Florence now, 1,000 + listings will come up and the first page will show ........Apartments.....Condos......Private rooms.....Hotel Rooms....Townhouses with a price rate applicable to the dates you put in.

Mark, they have fixed the problem.

I just wish we didn't have to go through the pain we have all been subjected to for the last month, not to mention the fall off in potential bookings.

The search page now appears to have the best of both worlds, you can search in the traditional way or you can click a category icon, type in your area location and only the properties in that category will be displayed.

They have sort of re-invented the wheel but at least now, it does work! The proof is, all of a sudden, our books are back, I have got 2 in the last 24 hours and the views are up again!

Cheers.........Rob

@Fred13   @L94  @Michelle1851  @Matta1  @Suzanne302  @Branka-and-Silvia0  @Nancy1633  @Heather1086  @Stephanie 

[Stephanie]

Hi @Robin4 .

Thanks for sharing what you’ve noticed on the platform. As we have been gathering Host feedback from across the Community Centre we have been sharing it with our various development teams. We are actively listening to this and we have started to evolve the Summer release, taking into consideration what our Host and Guest community have been sharing.

Please do keep sharing what you think with us here so we can continue the work, and let Airbnb know how you are finding the changes.

Thanks,
Steph

[Robin4]

@Stephanie 

Well you could at least give me a thumbs up if you think I am on the right track, you bug*er!

Steph, a week ago I was destroyed, I really felt like Airbnb and I had come to the end of our association, but that shiny new tomorrow has come. I don't know if it had anything to do with your involvement but, we are now back on track again....bookings are coming and my search exposure has been reinstated, but most importantly, guests can once again search for what they want.....not what Airbnb expects them to search for! 

Hey further to that great photo of your Peter in your DM  here is our Sailah Louie, he is growing up just so fast! At 18 months he is talking and is such a joy in our life......I am going to have him playing the piano in no time at all!!

Would you believe he is the first male child in our family for 76 years......I was the last!!

Keep up the great work Steph.......

Cheers.......Rob

[Fred13]

Actually the 'problem' remains and that is that they are ~still~ forcing a search to be either Weekend-Week-Month. Why? Who the heck knows, but totally unnecessary. The first filter should be 'Any Time' (drop the weekend one which is silly, probably the monthly one also). Even when you take the 'Show Map' the search is still being governed by the Weekend-Weekly-Month filters that should have been in parallel to the old system any way, not get in front of it. 

Again, this wasn't the result of good thinking, and testing and that is very surprising.

ALL they have to do is default to 'ANY' dates (in bolds letters) like the old way, and not to default to anything else from the very start. Never, never make decisions for the 'buyer', let them select what is applicable to them. (Business 101).

[Robin4]

@Fred13 

No Fred you are wrong, sorry mate, you are the last person on earth I want to disagree with  but all you have to do now is put in  dates you require  and available properties for those entered dates will be displayed.....no matter what their category!

If it's Islands  you are searching put in 2 nights and only Islands that will accommodate a 2 night stay will be displayed for that 2 nights you wish to stay. 

Mate I have been sussing this out all day and I have to admit  I think they have got it right this time. 

Possibly the update hasn't reached you yet taking into account you guys are 14 hours behind us....hahaha but Fred, I kicked this thread off with a massive complaint but I now have to concede they have fixed it. My views are up and the bookings are coming again, it's not a coincidence, the program jockeys have been told they need to fix it.....and they have! 

Cheers........Rob

[Suzanne302]

@Fred13 

THIS THIS THIS!!!!!! This is what some of us hosts have been going hoarse screaming about but no one seems to understand what we're saying! @Robin4  your response to Fred is a perfect example. You're not understanding what we're saying.

True, you can put in dates and all the properties available will show up. We get that.

But, you CANNOT search ANYTIME anymore for ALL properties in an area. It says "Anytime" but if you do that, like Fred was trying to explain, it's not really "anytime" because it only allows you to see properties that have a weekend, week, or month available. That's not truly "anytime." That limits a guest to those timeframes. And, for example, if it defaults to a week, my listing will NEVER show up in that search because my max stay is 3 days.

I used the example of my own guest search. I was going to take time off in Sept or Oct. My dates were flexible and I wanted to spend 4-5 days (NOT a weekend, NOT a week) in the mountains. In that case I want to see ALL properties in my search area, find out their availability, and adjust MY dates to fit the property I want to stay in. I couldn't do that on Airbnb. I got fed up after trying a few times, then went to VRBO and found exactly what I needed. Again, the search function available to guests on VRBO is NOT available to guests on Airbnb.

I often search like that and while I don't have stats to back it up, anecdotally, I know a lot of other people search that way too.

And I won't even go into this because I just want the above fixed, but that default "weekend" and "week" search will display random dates WAY in the future, even if the listing has availability before then.

[Fred13]

Your 1000% correct @Suzanne302 .  Kudos to you for getting it so quickly. It makes NO sense to remove a DYI Availability search option so they can pre-select (aka force) either of 3 filters (weekend/weekly/month) on the customer, whether they like it or not.

[Debbie-And-Arnulfo0]

Totally agree!!!  We have 4 day minimum, our views have seriously dropped.  95% of our stays are 4-6 nights, very rarely 7-8.

[Huma0]

@Suzanne302 @Fred13 

On top of that, when you search 'anytime', regardless of whether you select weekend/week/month, the results that show up are with random dates, NOT the first availability.

When I did this recently on a search for London, one of my listings was showing for dates in May/June 2023, when that room had availability from early September onwards. Why???

Naturally, guests are going to assume that those are the first available dates and not click on the listing if those dates are too late for them. It's not rocket science really.

I don't know who at Airbnb thought that was a great idea and managed to get the rest of them onboard. It's just silly.

[Fred13]

They are showing those with a 'week' open next in the future, but actually they really show listings with at least 5 days, not 7 days. What a mess.

[Fred13]

Perhaps I do not see the change you are seeing, yet. But general perusing what is available in Airbnb's wide range of offering today IS/WAS the point of this whole exercise, so to eliminate certain availabilities (listings) right off the bat because they do not match the dates entered is one way to go, why not start with a 'Any Time' or "All Listings" ( in bold letters!) filter and list everyone for those looking at large of what is generally available to the Airbnb browser. Never commit the clientele to only see a limited slice of your product line right off the bat, start with general exposure first and then allow them to use filters to narrow their search further. Start at the 10,000ft level then progressively lower in altitude. 

Example, despite the fact my place is #2 or #3 in the top strip of islands, it is dropped altogether unless the researcher used weekly as a filter, and then picks a week (actually 5 days) next May 2023. The whole thing is still at the ridiculous stage.

Ok, I will wait one day to see what you talking about. 🙂

[Fred13]

I am sure someone at Airbnb has looked at this in this manner. 

10,000ft level - Where you want to go (show the world's map).

9,000ft- When do you want to go (can filter what is available per month or other choices at this stage)

8,000ft- Minimum (searcher could enter that at this time; many places have a minimum length of stay)

7,000ft- Price Range (paramount for anyone on a budget; 95% of the world's population)

6,000ft- Style (aka category)

5,000ft- Reviews

4,000ft- Time Slots (weekend, weekly, month; weekly is what they do really want to push) Yuk.

3.000ft- Book

Trust Airbnb searcher brought their parachute after booking since 3,000ft is a long way to drop.

[Fred13]

@Robin4 My Airbnb has updated, somewhat. I hope this is not what you consider the best of two worlds.

1. Why is Airbnb is forcing people to select between a weekend / weekly / month, and I mean forcing. It is very hard to be get out of those filters. This is what is causing listings to disappear and come and go so unpredictably during a search. Besides it is hard to tell what 'mode' one is in or even how fell into it. As a default (meaning starting) it should none.

2. Why when you look into a listing the listing's calendar has been removed? This is the method how people look at a place to see their next available time. 100% of my bookings start out - "I see you have so and so open on X date". How do they know now? By literally asking us via a message, are they serious? You mean to tell me Airbnb doesn't realize people use those calendars that way?

I waited a whole month to put a microscope on this, figuring there will be chances, which there been some. But the two above frighteningly have remained, especially the second one. What they have done is taken a 'We will find you an accommodation based on what you know you want';  but suppose the searcher is looking to 'Find out what cool choices are there via Airbnb' . They focused on one and ignored the other.

Of all the changes of the last 7 years, this one takes the cake; the categories are fine, in fact cool; but the selecting filters for the viewer right off the bat and the elimination of a listing's 'days-available calendar' are absolute killers. They will feel it and know it soon enough. VRBO, Booking, etc must be celebrating as we speak.

[John5097]

@Robin4 

This is my November bookings. I was always booked way out, so get to see what guest want. Notice a lot of guest prefer weekdays. These reservations were made before the Summer Release update.  Guest wanted 2-4 weekdays even when weekends were available. 



After the Summer update there hasn't been any bookings for November. 

The weekends have booked for September and October, but weekdays have not.

 

So guest only option is to use exact dates. Maybe that will be enough but think some 30% of guest will get frustrated and not find what they were looking for, and weekdays that usually booked months in advance may go unbooked. So host will need to give enough priority to other booking sites to book their listings. 
 

[Fred13]

There is a way to get back to the old choose-your-own-dates (aka availability) mode:

1. Select a place;

2. Ignore everything and hit Edit Dates; you are on the old calendar

3. Now hit Clear Dates.  Back to normal.

Took me 2 days to figure that one out, I trust the other 100,000,000 people using Airbnb will figure out this trick sooner. To skip this unintended riddle all Airbnb has to do is leave a listing's calendar always showing as before.