Search "Instant Booking" + "Host recommendation required" related bug

[Michael5689]

I sometimes do searches in a separate browser to check where my listing is showing up in the search results.  I'm not sure when this behavior changed but it looks to me like a bug has been introduced when you search with the "Instant Book" filter toggle button on.  I've been seeing some complaints from user about not being to find their home ever in the "All" category so I was doing some digging and this is what I found.

The bug is basically that an "unknown user" on the website (not logged in) will not see a home show up when the "Instant Book" search criteria are toggled on in the Filters and IF the host has Instant Book turned on AND the toggle button for "Host recommendation required" is turned ON.  I call this a "bug", because I tested this and it isn't affected by whether the "Government-issued ID required" or "Pre-booking message required" selections are toggled on.  This ONLY occurs if the "Host recommendation required" button is toggled on.  I know that as recently as March when I did these searches as an "unknown" and not logged in user that I could still see our property even with Instant Book turned on so it's a recent change in behavior.

I see no logical reason why this would be designed behavior.  If the intention was for unknown users to not the be able to see hosts that offer Instant book, then any of the instant book settings turning on would make it invisible to this search.  Also seems to really be against AirBNB's strategy to encourage as many hosts as possible to use Instant Book.

I saw this behavior on my desktop on  "Microsoft Edge Version 101.0.1210.47 (Official build) (64-bit)"  I don't think it's a browser related bug however as I also checked on my cell phone through Chrome where I had logged out of AirBNB and the same inability to find the home with "Instant Book" set in the criteria occurred if and ONLY IF I had the "Host recommendation required" toggle on.

@Pat271 I thought this one was an important enough bug that I'd report it through this forum anyway 🙂  AirBNB really needs to work on it's testing and not rush out a release just in time for the summer season with too many new features.

@Emilie I'm curious if there is a way to report bugs in a better defined intake form than this forum?  I've found a few others that don't rise to this level of importance and don't want to clutter the board with rather technical bug reports that might not add much value to most of the audience here.

[Michael5689]

@Emilia42 Was just about to edit to that effect 🙂

[Gillian166]

@Michael5689 @Emilia42 

ah, you supersleuths. you are correct, once i added that filter my listing disappeared. hmm, so i should turn Ib off?

Or, how many guests actually bother to find that filter and turn it on? 

[Michael5689]

Yeah that’s the one that I’m definitely not willing to turn off.  If I had to I might turn the id one off but not the recommendation requirement.  In the grand scheme of things it’s not a huge deal but I called it a bug but I swear it’s a change from past behavior.  I see the earlier logical argument that you can make for the behavior witnessed now, not  sure if I agree it’s the right way to do it but who knows.

[Michael5689]

I agree it makes some logical sense and if the same behavior had been happening for the past few years I would argue it isn't a problem, however I've been doing these searches for a long time and this wasn't occurring before and switched sometime in the past 6 months.  Then you have the user from Australia who reports that when she has all 3 turned on and is not logged in for her searches that she can find her home so implementation seems uneven.  

[Emilia42]

@Michael5689 I understand what you are saying. But I have to ask: how many users, who do not have registered Airbnb accounts, are really filtering for Instant Book? I get the impression that even users with multiple Airbnb stays don't even know what instant book is.

[Michael5689]

@Emilia42 Fair point...I'm not sure of the scale of the impact or if this was an algorithm decision going back more than 6 months that I just somehow missed in my searches recently.  I've been seeing a number of bugs the last month or two that have been tricky to report, but this was one that I was able to boil down to something very specific so I thought I'd report it.

One ulterior motive here is to see if AirBNB offers some sort of bug reporting platform for experienced users where of course they would have to do some vetting before allowing people into that system.  In my career I do a lot of stress application testing of some pretty complex science softwares so I'm pretty good at breaking things in trying to find the limits of software.  🙂

[Helen744]

@Emilia42 I think that is or has been the case which would account for why we often have 'newbies' or did. The main problem being that they, even if reasonable guests, sometimes simply ignore all requirements and messages from the host until suddenly they need something. They have to be chased because of wording which says ,something like 'book without host approval' H

[Debra300]

@Emilia42,

It is my understanding that guests who do not meet the IB criteria should still see listing where the host has opted to receive booking requests from these prospective guests.

[Emilia42]

@Debra300 Apparently this has changed sometime recently. I have tried to search incognito (as @Michael5689 did) and when you have the instant book filter on, the listings that require host recommendations do not appear. 

[Debra300]

@Emilia42,

Interesting...I just did a search while not signed into my account and used an incognito browser session.  I wasn't specifically looking for my listings, but chose my hosting area, because I am very familiar with what's available.  This is the search criteria used: Gros Islet, St. Lucia, All Homes, August 5 to August 13, 2 guests, entire place, nightly rate price range: $65 to $140.  There were 173 listings returned, and all of our listings were included in the results, but none were a part of any split stay recommendations.  These results are different from another search with the same criteria, but the dates were July 14 to July 22.  Only our most expensive suite appeared in those results (all three were available), and it was included in 4 split stay recommendations.

We use Instant Book, and require a Government ID, Host Recommendation, and Pre-booking message.  When I clicked the Reserve buttons on each of our listing's page, I was taken to a Request to Book page, and I was given the option to make a split payment.  The next section was for sign up or logging in.  I am not sure when and where a guest is prompted for the Pre-booking message.

[Michael5689]

Ignore the previous version of this comment...Made a mistake, the Instant Book behavior is still the same and Instant Book will not show up for non-logged in  AirBNB users if "Host Recommendation Required" is turned on in a listing settings.  Sorry about that.