Listing has incorrect walking distance to the beach

[Judith1031]

I noticed a new listing label "X-min walk to the beach. This home is by ... Beach" recently. There are a couple of issues with this:

1. It uses a beach that's too far from the property as a reference point.
2. Thus the walking distance to the beach is too long. 

I haven't had any new bookings in almost two weeks which is atypical. 

Is anyone else experiencing a similar issue? What have you done to resolve this? 

[Zheng49]

The proximity feature is a fail. It highlights a drive to the national park, that no locals go to. 

[Joan2709]

@Judith1031 et al

I'm thinking Airbnb might be using a 3rd party vendor to handle these callouts. The same vendor they are using for Categories...Elevate.

There are known problems with the AI that is employed by Elevate, so I'm wondering if this is connected? 🤔 You might trying using specific in the Location section if you are using general and see what happens. 

See this thread:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Ask-about-your-listing/Elevate-categories-algorithm-assign-wrong...

[Luz134]

Hello @Joan2709, Thank you for this.  Has anyone figured out who to override this?  Can the distance to the beach, etc, be entered manually?  Thank you all, Luz

[Joan2709]

@Luz134 

There is no way to override this, as Airbnb (and whomever they are using for the Categories-Elevate) control this.

You can try contacting Airbnb CS and prove the distance is wrong, but others have tried with no success 😥

[Liz7085]

It states on the front of my Airbnb ad that I'm a 10 minute drive , but doesn't say what I'm a 10 minute drive from.  I'm on a cliff top and  a 15 minute walk to the beach.   The ad makes it sound like I'm a 10 minute drive to the sea 🤦🤦

[Joan2709]

@Liz7085 

Now it is showing 20min drive to a National Park, yet it's clear from your location and description most would want to book your place because it's so close to numerous beaches?

For now, a few suggestions to help the AI recognize you for proximity to beaches. Add the actual names of the beaches you are close to in several places (include the walking distance in minutes):

1. Main Description
2. In the Neighborhood Description in the Location Section in the Listing Editor
3. On any photos you have of the beaches

@Rebecca , could you forward this listing to the same Team at Airbnb ast to the others mentioned, in regards to the issues with the new proximity callouts in the Winter 2024 release?

[Liz7085]

Thanks very much for your input Joan, it's much appreciated.  Boscombe Beach has always been in the title.  Air bnb don't allow as many characters in the property description as TA did which is a shame.  I will look into your suggestions after the weekend.  I must admit I do find the Air BnB app very difficult to work with.  I'm sure it's fine if you're very familiar with it.

[Joan2709]

@Judith1031 

Well....it looks like Airbnb has removed the walking distance to the incorrect beach on your listing...but they haven't added the distance to the beach you ARE close to...sigh.

[Joe-Lorenzo0]

How was it removed? Is it on Elevate? 

[Joan2709]

@Joe-Lorenzo0 

I'm assuming that so many Hosts were complaining after this new location proximity feature was released to the entire platform in January, Airbnb had Elevate remove it until they fixed the issues. Not sure if this is permanent, or if they will attempt to re-introduce it once they work out the bugs. Those Hosts who opted in to Early Access on the Winter 2024 release noticed the issue and reported it, but nothing was done. Once the software was released to the entire platform, many more Hosts were affected. They are still using the feature callouts on the listing, just not the proximity callouts. I still see some prominent ones, like listings on Daytona Beach for example, but the walking distances have been removed on most listings:

There is no way for Hosts to delete the proximity callouts on a listing. That is a feature controlled by Airbnb through their 3rd party vendor Elevate.

[Joe-Lorenzo0]

@Joan2709 Is it possible to remove the "beach" category on elevate so that maybe Airbnb platform will not detect that distance from the house to the beach? 

Our house is just a 2-minute walk to the beach but is listed as a 9-min walk. It is very big difference and a huge deciding factor for future guests. 

[Joan2709]

@Joe-Lorenzo0 

2 of your listings show 1-min walk to beach and I can see on the listing map where they are. The one that says 9-min walk does appear to be further back from the ocean beachfront than the other 2 though.

I don't think I would risk having Elevate remove the Beach Category for now. I suggest you contact Airbnb CS and most likely this will have to be escalated to the "Special Team" on categories, as front line CS will tell you there is nothing you can do about it.

Another listing with the same issue finally got the incorrect 17-min walk to the beach removed, but it was not replace with the actual less than a min walk to the beach he actually had for the listing. I would think just having Airbnb remove the incorrect walking distance would be better than removing the beach category. Just continue to highlight the actual walking distance in your Title, Description and Neighborhood Sections. That would be my advice.

[Joe-Lorenzo0]

I am currently in contact with Airbnb support to have it removed instead. Thank you much for all the help.