Why are we listed under "Zoo" now?

[Joy1295]

With the big changes they did now find we are under "Zoo" category and not "Cabin" & "Countryside".

No wonder it's dead since the change.

How do I get this changed - any ideas?

Tried calling Airbnb several times, nothing so far over several weeks except promises to look into it, lol! 

Looking forward to actually getting changed so just maybe we will get some interest.

Kind regards Joy

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Joy1295 Most people complain they are not in a category so at least people who want to stay in a Zoo will find you.

@Catherine-Powell Any idea when the madness of categories will change? As a minimum perhaps you could at least allow hosts to select their own categories (and be responsible if they misrepresent them).

[Emilie]

Hi @Joy1295, 

Sorry to hear your listing seems to appear in the wrong Category! I wanted to let you know that the process has recently evolved and if you contact the Support team now, they will be able to look into this for you. 🙂

Thanks, 

Emilie

[Huma0 · Accepted solution]

Why is 'zoo' even a category??!! How many people are looking to stay in a zoo. Ridiculous.

Anyway, @Joy1295 further to what @Emilie wrote above, it seems that Airbnb has now put a CS team onto this (just happened in the last couple of days) so maybe try again. If you get a clueless rep who doesn't know about this, tell them that as of 13th July, Airbnb is allowing hosts to request that their listing be added to or removed from a category/categories.

Here is the response I got when I asked CS 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."

[Huma0]

@Joy1295 

Further to my post above, two days after the request was sent, I got confirmation that my listings were eligible for the categories I requested them to be in and that they would be added within 72 hours. I would definitely give it another go.

[Emilie]

That's great to hear, @Huma0!

@Joy1295 If you do try it, let us know how it goes as well please. 🙂