My listing can be found IF and only if you put in specific dates that are available, or if you use the map, or if you use filters, but it does NOT appear anymore in a “general search” anymore, meaning a guest does a search for my area but does not put in dates or filters. My bookings are way down as a result of this bug and I can not get anyone to pay attention to it. I have had guests contact me offline outside of Airbnb multiple times because they can’t find my listing anymore on Airbnb in the general search and they think I removed my listing. I have not removed my listing.
Here are some searches you can do to verify this for my specific area: (try this in your area too)
-Search Sebastopol, CA with no dates, you get 66 to 72 results, and my listing does not appear in the search at all. (I used to always appear in the first few pages of this search for the last 4 years)
-Search Sebastopol, CA with Jan 25th to 27th, 2021 dates, you get over 300 results and my listing is the first listing (as of today as it is currently available those dates). If you are viewing this later then this month you may have to put in dates a few months ahead to see this. This result makes no sense. The first general search should return more homes than a specific date search, this same general search used to return 300 results in the general search without dates, now it returns less than a third of the actual available homes that are available in the area and our bookings reflect this. It’s not just my listing, it is hundreds of homes in the area that are being impacted by this change in the search. I think what is happening is it is now returning only homes located in the city limits of Sebastopol for the general search.
-Search Occidental (which is a town that is further away than Sebastopol, and yet, we come up first in that general search even though that town is further away, yet we do not appear at all in the Sebastopol general search anymore which is what most people coming to the area search for as it is the largest main town in the area)
I am wondering if they changed something around areas/ towns for the general search, like if a town has a certain number of listings, then it only shows the listings in the general search that are in the city limits, and nothing outside of it and then if a town is smaller then they will show listings outside of the town? We are located about 5 minutes outside of the town of Sebastopol, so we are not within the city limits but we are in the area and always appeared at the top of the search for that area before June of this year. Does anyone have any info on this?
If so, why would they want 300 listings to show up for specific dates, but for a general search they only show a 1/3 of the listings? What is the logic and reason behind this? It seems in reverse to me as a guest. If I don’t put in dates and I am just looking for an amazing place to say and I am flexible on when I could stay, wouldn’t I want to see ALL the listings of an area, not just 1/3 of them, 72 listings? And then I put in dates, and then they show me all the listings showing me over 300 listings. I can’t make sense of this change in search and why they would do this.
We are typically booked out many months in advance and we have definitely noticed a big drop off for winter bookings since this change was made in June. I know some of our bookings still come from doing a specific dates search or filter search, but I know we are losing some bookings for those who just do general searches and guests not being able to find us anymore in the general search as I have never had anyone contact us offline in the 5 years I have been a superhost and say they could not find our listing anymore until after this change happened in June of this year.
I would appreciate any insight or feedback on this issue that anyone has! What am I missing here? Thank you!