Why have Air BnB decided to remove our titles?

[Helen609]

What is their thinking behind this? There must be a reason. Why do they actually think it's better this way?  It has been a disaster for me at any rate.

Since the launch I have had zero views of my property. I usually have an 85% occupancy rate year round but can't see how I am ever going to get bookings now. My title was important, I think it made people click on the property.

Also if I go to the category that I have managed to get in by adding beach to literally every photograph it lists properties 50 miles from the search area I have put in. Only when I ho to the map do I see my property.

I really am despairing. I'm putting my cottage on VRBO today.

[Pat271]

I’m befuddled by this as well. The only thing I can think of is that sites like Booking.com have these kinds of titles. For consistency, maybe? 

Anyway, it is a major impact to both of my listings, one of which has an ocean view, and the other of which is in the heart of Downtown. Both of those features were previously highlighted in the titles of the top-level search results. Sigh…

[Loretta126]

Vrbo shows the same kind of plain titles on their app version. I think it is because the titles were too long for the app and were truncated by the program, so it didn’t help the owner or the guest.  I’m sure ABB focuses on the app - their target demographic only uses phones. 

[Michael5689]

Titles are pure marketing and can be quite misleading so it may be motivated by an accuracy thing that they felt like the titles were too misleading sometimes.  That's my thought at least...  I'm guessing they removed the reviews count to start spreading guests out more to the less visited properties.  

[Pat271]

I just thought of something. I have often read that having a catchy title can help guests find you for direct bookings. So, if a potential guest sees “Serene Chalet” in an Airbnb title, they can look up “Serene Chalet” in Google, and find the direct booking site if the SEO is set up up correctly, thereby avoiding the guest fees. Maybe Airbnb’s removed the titles to fight this practice. 

[Anonymous]

@Pat271  That is a possibility, but I've gathered from some sources that Airbnb doesn't internally regard direct-booking options for its listed hosts as competition.

A simpler answer might be that the standardized titles will always display in the guest's chosen language, without losing accuracy to auto-translation. There's also the problem that a lot of listings have been littering their titles with flashy emoji that don't load correctly on all devices, or obnoxious all-caps word salads that make the results screen visually trashy.

The problem is, now the results are really samesy and featureless unless you're looking at unconventional property types, so guests get a really distorted idea about how many Airbnb's are actually tree houses and castles. I guess that fits the current branding strategy, but I don't see any benefits for the majority of hosts who have normal houses that haven't been inserted into trees. 

[Helen744]

@Anonymous My new title will hover between 'Barber shop'across the road to 'fruitshop/laundromat' nearby with 'hedge ' as a feature. I am also hoping to feature'strange neighbours 'with dogs' and 'many leaf galas' to reflect the time of year followed by 'free soup' . Hoping for the best fingers crossed H

[Dave52]

@Helen609  Airbnb should provide reasons when making a major change like this.  So far have not heard any.  The generic titles are step backward in my opinion.  The mere fact that we need to ask "why" suggests it is not a positive change for hosts or guests.

Last year we were looking for a beachfront bungalow in Malibu, found and booked a wonderful beachfront bungalow in Malibu, because of the TITLE. It was exactly what we were looking for, and we had a great stay. 

Now, the same listing displays generic title "house in Malibu" with all the other "house" "apartment" etc.  You have to click through to see more.

Further, the categories are a mess.  For example, choose Malibu as destination, then select Beachfront, and you get listings far far away from Malibu apparently because they have the word Beach in their description title!!  Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Laguna Beach, Seal Beach, etc.  I cannot believe guests like this new way better.  Have they done any surveys??  Upgrades don't always move things forward, mistakes can be made.

[Gillian166]

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Only when I hop to the map do I see my property.

I really am despairing. I'm putting my cottage on VRBO today.

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well @Helen609  if it's any consolation as a guest I only search with the map view. I tend to search location first, then find what will fit my needs. 

I put one of mine on BDC but I really don't like their interface, and being paid 10days after the stay isn't cool either. However, I did get 4 bookings from them pretty quickly.