Listing has changed following Airbnb update

[Joanna494]

My listing suddenly showed a new section on scenic views - which I didn’t action. I have guests now angry that the scenic views were not there! Has anyone else had this problem ? Airbnb say it was me and not them! Grateful for any help out there x

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Joanna494 Airbnb should really know better as it is their AI that is determining the categories of our listings. I suspect you may have a photo showing a local nice view and it has picked up on that.

[Joanna494]

I know - they deny responsibility and I have had to compensate a guest because of this - think I’m pretty powerless in all this! Thanks for replying though!

[Huma0]

@Joanna494 

If it's Amber Cottage, I suspect @Mike-And-Jane0 is right and that the AI picked up on your lead photo, which has a view of the sea.

Did customer services remove your listing from the scenic views category? If not, then you can request that they do. Then maybe change the lead photo to one of the property instead.

[Joanna494]

Yes and also I assume they picked up mention of views from our local pubs in the manual - I have had to pay compensation to a disappointed guest because of this and they deny it was their update - very frustrating

[Anonymous]

@Joanna494   This is a perfect illustration of what a disaster the update turned out to be. For every host who's missing out on being featured in the categories they would have chosen, there's a host like you who is incorrectly assigned a category that you wouldn't have.

But why did you have to compensate this guest for missing features that weren't advertised in your listing? Did Airbnb require you to do this, or did you just feel like that was the only way to get a disgruntled guest off your back?

@Huma0  Do we know for a fact that customer service can change the category settings on hosts' behalf? Everything I've seen so far has said that it's out of their hands and they can't override the almighty algorithm.

[Huma0]

@Anonymous 

So, apparently, a few days ago, they assigned a team to this. You can now contact CS and ask for your listings to be added to or removed from a category. This team (not AI, but actual people) will review it. There is not guarantee that they will give you want you want, but they are supposed to give you an answer either way within seven days.

I was told 100% that this was the case, and it worked when I tried it. I don't know why it is not being widely advertised. I can only imagine it's because they do not want to get inundated...

[Huma0]

PS @Anonymous 

Basically, I was told this was the case and that it wouldn't be announced but that I should feel free to spread the word...

[Anonymous]

@Huma0  Thank you for the valuable intel! I guess it's a good thing that a process might exist for hosts to change their category settings. But of all the processes they could have instituted, they chose the worst and most inefficient one possible for both hosts and the beleaguered CS contractors.

It would have been so easy to just build category options into the listing editor. They could still use their algorithm to choose which listings to feature in the category searches, but at least it would be working off of human-generated data. 

[Huma0]

@Anonymous 

True, that would have been a much more logical approach. We get to choose which amenities to list, and then guests get a chance to report back (via the review process) whether those amenities exist or not. Why not do the same for the categories? 

[Huma0]

@Anonymous 

To give you (and others) more detail, here is the response that I got from CS when I asked about it:

"You're absolutely right, we have launched a specialized team which is dedicated to helping Hosts who feel like their listings are categorized incorrectly on the Airbnb platform.

I’ve sent your category request that each of your three listings be included under "Shared homes, Iconic cities, and Historical Homes" to our specialized team who’ll review it. The review process may take up to a week. You’ll receive a message from that team in your inbox once the review has been completed.

In the next 48 hours, you might receive an automated email which advises you that your case has been closed—that’s in reference to this specific message thread. Rest assured that your case is still under review and that the specialized team will be reaching out to you through a new message thread.

Please note that submitting a listing does not guarantee inclusion in any category, and a number of factors are used to determine whether a listing qualifies for inclusion in a given Airbnb Category. Categories offered, their eligibility criteria, factors considered, and listings included in them may change at any time without notice.

For Categories based on proximity to a location or activity, listings will only be included if they're sufficiently close to select points of interest, and not all points of interest are currently included. We plan to continue adding new points of interest to our categorization system over time, so, if your listing isn't eligible now, it may be in the future.

Our specialized team will now be taking over your categories request, but please let me know if you have any further questions."

Three days later, I got a confirmation email (automated) from CS saying that my three listings were eligible for those three categories and would be added within 48 hours. When I checked two or three days later, they had been.

It hasn't really helped with bookings though as you literally have to zoom in over my house to see the the listings on the map when searching in those categories, so problem still not solved... I do, however, appreciate CS's fast and efficient action in terms of adding my listings to the categories. 

[Joanna494]

Basically - after the update there was a new category of scenic views - it added four that aren’t true - the guests say they were expecting them - so I have compensated them because Airbnb say I added them manually! There was a tab saying new - which shows that I hadn’t accessed it myself?

[Emiel1]

@Joanna494 

in the new categories there is no categorie "scenic views" (there is a "amazing views")

One of your listings (Amber cottage) is assigned to categories: "beach", "beachfront", "surfing"

The other is not assigned to any of the new categories.

[Joanna494]

Thank you all - my listing has been corrected by a human being and yes it is now correct - it’s the fact that they deny the new update was responsible for the new category which was incorrect. E.g. it said I had a view of a marina - they must have got this from the street address’marine Parade’ - there is no marina and I wouldn’t have added it!

[Huma0 · Accepted solution]

@Joanna494 

Ok, now I see what may have gone wrong. @Emiel1 is correct in that there is no 'scenic views' category, only 'amazing views'.

However,  in the listing details themselves, there is a section for scenic views. I was constantly asked by the system to 'tell guests about your scenic views', which I ignored as I don't have scenic views, but it wouldn't go away, so I clicked on it to see what it said. One of the options was 'courtyard' view, so I selected that for the listing that faces the garden and roof terrace and selected no scenic views for the rooms facing the road.

On the listing with courtyard view, this now shows underneath the location section when I am in edit mode. So, you can go there to check if they have indeed removed it from your listing. On the listing itself, 'scenic views' appears in the list of amenities or 'what this place offers'.

So, for once, I do not believe that this has anything to do with the new categories because, for now at least, the categories are not mentioned on the listings themselves. So, the only way the guests saw this on your listing was because 'scenic views' was selected in the amenities. Either you did this yourself by mistake or it was a technical glitch. I have noticed a lot of glitches with the amenities list, e.g. amenities I definitely checked becoming unchecked. I think it's because Airbnb keep tweaking them and, when they do, sometimes some of them reset, which is why it's worth double checking them every now and again.