There have been lots of posts from hosts who are frustrated that their listing isn't appearing on searches. Last night I had a frustrating experience from the other side of the bed!
I am planning some upcoming trips and wanted to do some research to book accommodations through Airbnb - which will be a first for me, although I am an active host. I was very excited to be able to experience the other side of Airbnb as a guest, after having had such pleasurable experiences as a host.
I put in my dates, the basic features I was given to choose from (entire home, 1 bedroom, Instant Book OFF) and price range. What appeared was what seemed like a completely random, and overwhelming, list of hundreds of options that I then had to laboriously sort through to find what I was looking for.
I would have liked an opportunity to have been able to sort the results. Things like Superhost status, quality of review, numbers of reviews, price. What should have taken me a relatively short period of time, and given me access to the listings most suited to my needs, instead resulted in an hours long search as I waded through mediocre listings to find the pearls.
My first guest experience was not very satisfying, and I can understand the frustrations of excellent hosts who are not appearing high in the rankings. It is those excellent hosts that I wanted to find! I don't want to wade through pages and pages of mediocre listings from less than committed hosts to find the hosts and the properties that I know will meet my expectations.
Although I was looking forward to an Airbnb experience, it would have been way easier to have used a conventional booking platform to have found accommodations for my upcoming trips. Perhaps not as fun, but definitely more user friendly and efficient. Every major booking site out there allows me to sort my search result by price, stars, and reviews.
I watched the live presentation today from the LA Open about upcoming additions to the Airbnb platform. I wish the creators would spend more time improving what they already have, rather than coming up with new innovations. I definitely had a less than positive experience trying to book as a guest, which impacts all of us as hosts.
Jude
PS Although this isn't a hosting issue - ultimately it is - since the inability of guests to easily find the property that best suits their needs affects every host. I might have been looking for some of YOU, but couldn't find you because you were buried many pages back and it just wasn't feasable for me to continue searching after a certain period of time. Had I been able to sort my results your listing may have moved up to a place where I could easily find it.
If you think the search function needs to be improved, benefitting both guests and hosts, please add your voice and thumbprint. 🙂