Listing not appearing in any category

[Richard2341]

Hi

The Summer Update has been a nightmare for me (and i know many other hosts).

Views have dropped from circa 400 to 10 a day and bookings have completely dried up. This is a very distressing issue.

My listing does not appear in any category, which could well be part of the issue.

I look at my area. There are around 500 listings and only about 30 are under a category. And those categories look to me messed up  - i see a brick and mortar houses in the "tree house" or "cabin" category. 

Does anyone know how to get into a category? Everyone about my place is golf (golf in title, description, golf views, putting green in the house, in a famous golf area etc etc) but im not in that category.

I called customer service and the representatives in SE Asia have no idea or way to escalate the issue. They acknowledged to me that a lot of hosts have called with issues re their views/bookings cratering, but they have no answers.

Thanks

[Emiel1]

@Richard2341 

You do not have to be assigned to a category to receive bookings. The "normal" search still works on the platform.

The main issue in the new release is "categories" and "i am flexible" are ON by default (while it should be optional only).

I  noticed you are the co-host of the listing.

As you can see it still shows up in general category "all homes"

BTW

My listings are also not assigned to any category, but i still receive bookings.

[Richard2341]

Understand it can be booked. But the question was "why is it not in a category".

If someone does search by a specific category, then im automatically out of the search. 

When you say "categories" and "i am flexible" are ON by default, what do you mean?

[Russel302]

I think it is how the page shows up when someone opens up the webpage or app to the traveling side.  It now shows Categories and I'm flexible as a default.  

I just took a look at my place on the traveling side.  I don't really fit into any of those categories?  Mine is just a house in Las Vegas (THAT should be a category 😜)

I do know that in my listing details the had been a Scenic Views section that they were making me for months before the update about.

[Russel302]

I have been having the same issue.  My listing shows up and I have a few bookings since the April-May timeframe.  April was booked solid, May was mostly booked, but I just got my 1st booking for June today!  I had a few days at the beginning of the month blocked to do some minor repairs.  Could that have been why?  Or is it more likely that the Summer Update was more like a curse?  My views went from somewhere around 5k a month to 1300 or so...

[Laura2592]

@Richard2341  there are several threads on this. One of the mods explained that there is a bot who picks a category based on your pics, titles, etc. There are a LOT of errors on this. 

I just sold my listing, which was a stone schoolhouse in the country. This was before the debacle of these 500000 categories and a real estate porn front page. Nonetheless I sometimes had guests ask if I had a pool. We did not. None were pictured or mentioned. The last search update would include properties in the area if none had the searched for filter-- we had no pools around so we got included. 

Eventually there were enough inquiries about my imaginary pool that the bot started asking me questions about it! Stay tuned for "not as described" claims from guests when this new silliness puts homes in the wrong search and guests show up expecting a pool that does not exist....

[Mark-and-Gabriela0]

Search categories in the Community Forum you will find a lot of complaints about Categories, let’s unite