When the AI isn’t very intelligent…

[Trude0]

So, I had a chuckle a while ago, when Airbnb’s AI decided that ”Park for free” was one of the highlights of my new archipelago listing. Forget about «Sea View» or «3 min walk to the beach» - according to Airbnb, my listing «is one of the few places in the area with free parking”. (The area consists of holiday houses and horse farms - EVERYONE  offers free parking… 😏) 

But this morning I had a spit out my coffee moment: The AI has concluded that in addition to being in the Beach (makes sense) and Countryside (absolutely) categories, my place also belongs in ”Top Cities”. The «iconic» city of Hallstavik, Sweden… 😂

I have an Airbnb friend in London, who argues that surely, London would be considered an iconic city? And therefore, her centrally locaded listings might qualify for the «Top Cities» category…? (No.) 

As I’ve said before: If you are going to use AI,  make sure the «I» stands for «intelligence». Because other words starting with «I» spring to mind…

Any other examples that anyone wants to share…?

 

 

 

[Frances3408]

@Trude0. Yep, 100% agree. They waste one of my three highlights on the fact it has a smart lock, never mind the other 5 star rated features mentioned in reviews. They seem to be wasting yours with a double mention of your Superhost status?

Top city, lol! We get a featured 50 min drive to another National Park instead of a 7 minute walk to the beach. I have just deleted Countryside even though our town (not much bigger than yours) is surrounded by farmland and vineyards. Had to fight for that Vineyards category inclusion as well. I need to ask my wine drinking guests to mention it more in their reviews because clearly AI cant has trouble reading a map!

[Trude0]

@Frances3408  They seem to think National Parks are veeeery important to guests…😏

My Stockholm listing (tiny house) is both in the National Parks category, and frequently has proximity to Tyresta National Park as one of three ”highlights”. I’m north-west of Stockholm city, the park is south-east, and a 45 minute drive from here. Meaning that practically every other listing in the Stockholm greater area would be a better choice, if you came to Stockholm to visit that park… 😂

Glad to hear you were able to get the Vineyard category! I don’t think guests use the categories nearly as much as Airbnb thinks - but a few categories (like Vineyards, Beach, Lake…) I think might be worth having.

[Kia272]

@Trude0 To add insult to injury, the AI (?) decided that my listing is close to a lake (not) and close to skiing (not). When I finally summoned the courage and fortitude to contact support about removing those designations, they told me that THEY couldn't do it, and that I had to contact some specialized team to request the removal. 

I said- well, AirBnB assigned me those categories in error, and now I have to jump through hoops to have them corrected?? I told them how ridiculous that is. We went back and forth a bunch of times, with me explaining over and over how ridiculous that is, and they wouldn't budge. 

I guess my listing is now officially close to a lake and skiing, because I'm not doing a **bleep** thing more to get that corrected. It boggles the mind to think that somebody at AirBnB considers that okay. I'll now have to encourage my guests to bring skis and water skis!!!

[Frances3408]

@Kia272. I have access to Elevate to request changes to my categories (sometimes works sometimes changes back) . Do you? Have used it quite regularly since a helpful support person mentioned it earlier this year.

[Kia272]

@Frances3408 I have to admit that I don't know what Elevate is. What is it? 

Even if it does offer a fix, it still doesn't mitigate the absolute idiocy of the situation. 

[Frances3408]

Here is link. I think its another outsourced back office area that reviews your requests to change categories; often takes weeks to get a response but then suddenly you get either an accept or decline. a few articles on CC about it too.

https://elevate.translated.com/categories

[Kia272]

@Frances3408 Thank you SO much! I just requested removal of both erroneous categories. 

I do have to say, to add to the idiocy of the whole situation, nobody from support even mentioned Elevate. Why?? Sometimes the lack of rational functionality at AirBnB just blows my mind. 

[Trude0]

@Kia272 Lack of rational functionality sums it up nicely.

I contacted CS a while back, asking for my listing to be put in a category. They said they could not help me, but were happy to forward my request to the right department. A couple of days later, my listing was put in the requested category. A couple of days after that, I was informed that they had ”carefully considered”, and concluded that my listing ”did not qualify for the requested category at this time”, and they ”understood that this was not the outcome I was hoping for”.

But my listing is still in that category. My guess is, the person who messaged me the NO did not even look at my listing/case, just wanted to close the case, and therefore did not even notice that a colleague (or AI?) had already made the opposite conclusion. 

An Airbnb friend in London just told me that one of her listings is in Chef’s Kitchen, the other two are not. The three listings are Rooms in the same house, and share the kitchen…😏

[Kia272]

@Trude0 I know, right? In both of our cases, support never mentioned Elevate. After Frances3408 did, I was able to quickly login and request the change. The request is still pending, so who knows how it will turn out. Maybe they'll honor my request, but then designate me Ocean View, or something like that. Funny/not funny.