The New Category Only Airbnb 2022

Kimberly718
Level 10
North Stonington, CT

The New Category Only Airbnb 2022

As a host, I am very concerned about the new Airbnb Category-only landing page. Are you?

I am shocked that Airbnb made such a dramatic shift away from the previous design of the site which used Ai to track and learn about traveler preferences and then serve up properties of interest. I can't understand why they couldn't introduce categories as a slider or ancillary search tool to showcase unique places and inspire travelers without losing the workhorse of this booking and marketing tool. 

I worked hard to obtain my 5-star rating; I had great conversion rates, visibility within the algorithm, and traveler saves.  I followed all of Airbnb's recommendations about how best to showcase my home, and how to be a great host. My summer bookings were going gangbusters until they came to a complete stop with the launch of this new design.

My luxury guest house which is located in the countryside on a historical farm, featuring a herd of longhorn cattle and horses, close to vineyards, beach, lakeside and golf courses is now relegated to one category (farm stay) where it is buried deep within a random collection of farm stays, several of which don't have farm animals at all. With no way to adjust the categories or add tags to inform the Ai, the power to market and gain visibility has been taken out of hosts' hands, and our business, marketing and success is precariously at the mercy of Ai (Artificial Intelligence). Airbnb seems to have put ego first with "design" category which features the most impossible to compete with stays in the most far-reaching corners of the world.  What is next? Will they adopt the Facebook business model of "You need us we don't need you" and "Do not contact us... ever" policy? I hope this is not the case, I truly love the platform which seemed like a Win-Win-Win for host-traveler-Airbnb. When the balance of those three things changes, many people lose. Airbnb if you're reading this, please don't let that happen. 

62 Replies 62

Indeed. I am not only disappointed I am afraid for my business. My trajectory was great, I was so excited to be seeing the level and quality of bookings coming in finally after so much hard work. 

 

Tony-And-Una0
Level 10
Belfast, United Kingdom

If people  can't find where they want to stay easily  and accurately  then eventually  they'll go elsewhere. 

 

Being directed to places on the other side  of the country is not the best move.

 

 

I tried to look for a place in Paris City Centre yesterday  and ended up booking  it on  another platform. 

 

The main reason was on that platform  I could accurately akd easily  search distance for the part of  the City Centre Centre I wanted to stay in.

 

 

 

Absolutely agree. We are a farm stay in Mystic, Connecticut. Which is among the top searched-for towns in the northeastern part of the US. I put in Mystic and my listing wasn't visible, I then clicked on farm stay and I was redirected to stays that were 200 miles from Mystic. It's a mess. Well, we can only hope that Airbnb will quickly discover the errors of this disastrous design blunder. 

Nancy1633
Level 10
Hoboken, NJ

Airbnb's redesign has made my listing, a charming Catskills cabin, unfindable, generic and virtually unbookable.  Zero bookings since redesign- one inquiry whether my listing was available on June 3-5!  That most fundamental information- the calendar- was replaced with suggested WEEKS in late 2022/2023!  What was Airbnb thinking?  I only started in January, but have seen a lot of interest in my property-- until now.  Airbnb has become arrogant, no way to treat the peeps that brung you to the dance.  Guests and hosts alike. 

I know, we are in our busiest time of the year. I was getting bookings almost daily and then it all came to a crashing stop. Labor Day is still open which is crazy. We launched in Sept last year and have done amazingly well and have followed all of the recommendations from Airbnb re marketing and showcasing my property. I go above and beyond to maintain my 5 stars and Superhost status so this is quite a blow. Proof that you shouldn't put all of your business in one basket though. That said, VRBO underperforms for whatever reason and is wrought with scammers. Onward. 

Undefinable and generic is a great comment, it’s exactly how the search page looks. 
The simple lack of information on the search page groups everyone under one umbrella, and for me, non of my properties can be searched for under the new headings, I just don’t fit. 

Early stats are in: Since May 11th launch of new and "improved" Airbnb (not)

 

Views down by 75%

Saves/Likes down by 85%

$0 bookings

Emilie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

@Chris517 Thank you for letting us know what you think of the new search page.

 

You mentioned you find it is currently simple and lacks information - I’d love to hear more about what sort of information you think would be useful to add to it, so I can share your suggestions with our team.

 

Thanks, 

Emilie

-----

 

Merci de jeter un oeil aux Principes du Community Center/ Please follow the Community Guidelines

Emilie, My home is in the Mystic, CT area I indicate that in my listing, this is a highly sought after area for summer through fall vacationers coming from NYC for a long weekend or week long stay.

 

I see you are in London so it would be like driving two hours from London proper to a lovely historic farm and seaport village.

 

When I used to search for my place it would pop up even if I did a search for Mystic and my farm is a 15-minute drive from there. Now my place doesn't show up at all when I search for Mystic and when I click on farm stays which seems to be the only category my place shows up in the map zooms way out to include farms that are more than 200 miles from Mystic and I have to zoom way in tight to the map and only because I want to find my place. The avg traveler is not going to do that. Then there's the issue with the populating dates, the push to book a week. I follow my insights regulalrly and my avg guest is coming for a short staycation weekend from NYC or Boston for 3 days. They are not traveling for a week so why the push to get people to find a week stay. That said if a traveler is not clicking and reclicking on the search field the system reverts to the week stay and constantly serves up a swath of locations way outside of the original search location of Mystic. But the proof is in the pudding, my bookings are non existent since this change occurred and my visibility is down by 50% to 85% in the height of the season. We got through a grueling winter and things were going gang busters with bookings and now Airbnb decides to try on some new pants. WTFScreen Shot 2022-05-17 at 2.19.09 PM.png

Emilie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

@Kimberly718 It is indeed a small world! I’ve been fortunate to visit Mystic CT, when I visited a friend over in Greenwich one year and we ventured further through the state. I’m keeping your listing on hand in case I get a chance to come back at some point and need a great place to stay at!

 

I appreciate the details you shared about how you feel these changes have impacted you and your listing. As I mentioned earlier, I’m sharing all your feedback with the team, and will add all these comments to the mix. 

 

Thanks, 

 

Emilie

-----

 

Merci de jeter un oeil aux Principes du Community Center/ Please follow the Community Guidelines

Hi Emilie,

 

Well let’s start by putting back all the information we used to have, that would be a good start. 
Our own header titles, where we can describe what we offer,

The number of bedrooms not just beds, and all the rest of the info that was on the landing page.

 

And put back the Search option for Pets, the so called web search to bring that up has never worked for me, 

so anyone who wants to find a pet friendly home must “ click through” to a large number of properties before they find a pet friendly place. 

So many guests have thanked me, saying, “I’m so glad I found you” it was hard to find a pet friendly place. Narrow the search for people so they have a shorter list to work through. 

I don’t fit into any of the fancy new categories, so I just don’t come up in anything other than “All homes”.  This puts me into a very broad category unless the potential guest uses the search options. 

Unfortunately one of those options “Pets” is now missing, so my potential guest is left to figure out , which homes are pet friendly, and, which homes have enough bedrooms.

 

My potential guest needs to click through on every home to find that information, that’s a lot of searching.  Far more than they used to need.

 

Put the system back, give us our TOOLS back, they are important for all of us, Hosts and Guests,

put the fancy category stuff up also if need be, but don’t remove what worked before. 

 

HELP the guest to find us, what you’ve done now is just making it hard work for the guest to find us, and empty homes for us with no income. 
I guarantee, if the guests find searching the Airbnb platform hard work, they will shift.

 

I currently have 2 of my 6 properties on another platform, today I’m going to list my other 4.

Simply so I can get “Found”. I want and need my amazing guests, and if Airbnb has buggered up the system, I shall simply go somewhere else. 

 

 

 

 

Help which other platforms to use ?!

I have zero bookings now with airbnb Nothing is happening 🤦‍♀️
I will have to sell

Emilie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

@Chris517 Thank you for all this detailed, thought-through feedback on the new search page. I’ve captured all of your suggestions and shared them with our product team. 

 

When it comes to pet-friendly listings, guests can easily find them by simply adding a number of pets to their search, in the same menu they choose the number of guests:

 

Screenshot 2022-05-19 at 08.56.22.png

 

 I hope this helps, and thank you again for your comments!

 

Emilie

-----

 

Merci de jeter un oeil aux Principes du Community Center/ Please follow the Community Guidelines