Need Ways to Sort Search Results

[Jude7]

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. 🙂

[Sandra126]

And it would also be nice to get the old screen with listing names and host pictures back, as it helps you with choosing before you go to the effort of clicking into a listing.

[Curt0]

Sandra you are so correct.  The old screen also allowed a host to title their first on screen photo so you could try to  differentiate and explain your property features.  This hurts potential guests in helping them make a selection.  Its like taking away the 4 minute elevator speech.  Now we are just a bunch of photos in list view.

Regards,   Curt

[Amy38]

Did you try zooming in the map to the area you want to stay in? That is the only way I know of to narrow choices down...also click option Search as I move map.

And you can put in a  price and a show superhosts only unless they changed that since yesterday.

[Jude7]

Hi @Amy38 and @Curt0!

Thanks for your comments, and for sharing my frustrations. As Curt said, I would like more information at my fingertips before having to take the time to click and read. And @Sandra126 - Sad to report that I am now getting only a list of photos with price and numbers of beds, whereas a few days ago I was getting listing titles and faces of smiling hosts.

I also see, thanks to @Amy38, that I can filter by Superhost, which I was NOT able to do from my ipad app. As a Superhost myself, that's a nice filter. But when the results come in, I would then like to sort them by ratings and price, especially if Superhosts are hard to find.

Happy also to report that Instant Book is NOT the default as of today on my computer when I search.  It's an option, but the default search for me, today, is OFF.  Thank goodness......

It's not filtering I'm looking for - because obviously I can filter by my price range and fine-tune my neighborhood.  But when I get several hundred listing that are in my price range, I want to then SORT those listings into an order that would be most useful to me.  It is the SORT function that I'd like to see fine-tuned.

Any search I've ever done anywhere - for any sort of commodity - allows me to sort how the results appear.  I want the best to appear at the top, not some random order that some algorithm thinks I want to see.

Jude

[Sandra126]

Keywords! That would sort it. ''beach'', ''tango'', whatever. The best listings for you would show.

[Jude7]

I'm not interested in ammenities, other than the basics, not for the trips I'm planning.  I'm interested in quality,  quality of listing and quality of the host, and would like to be able to sort the results by stars, or numbers of reviews, or quality of reviews, or something like that.

When doing a recent search for a major city in the US, I was appalled at how much mediocrity was there, and had to plod through pages and pages of listings to find the gems. There's a real difference between those hosts who love what they do, and those who think they can make a quick buck. ( or whatever currency it happens to be!)

I also had a fairly broad price range, which is probably why I got as many results as I did.  There was no order to the way the results were appearing.  There were some real gems at lower prices, and some thoughtlessly thrown together listings at higher prices.  Having had an ability to sort from low to high would have let me find those wonderful properties more quickly, that were made harder to find.

Jude

[Amy38]

I think abnb is trying to look like hotel.com which just have a photo and price....but you have selected a neighborhood at Htels which Abnb doesnt do except in a few big cities.

Did any of you see that they have now partnered with Celtic Bank to offer hosts 5000 loans at 8% to improve their properties.   And plan to start offering all kinds of things like city tours and event packages.

We all need to voice our dismay at the disappearance of listing titles.  On abnb Facebook and write the main office in SF.  They are removing all the personality from the offerings.

I love being a host, but all of this gets a little creepy.

i do think we should all voice oour dislike 

[Jude7]

I agree with you, @Amy38, which is why I have been vocal and have voiced my concerns.  I think the Airbnb concept is a great one, one that has enriched my life greatly for all the reasons that Airbnb was created in the first place.

I watched the live stream from the Airbnb open yesterday that presented many of the new features that are being rolled out.  There were warm and fuzzy video clips presented about all the many ways in which community is being created through Airbnb.  The clips truly warmed my heart, but I couldn't help but contrast them with the actual experience that we are having as hosts and guests, and the frustrations we experience as we try to create the very experience that Airbnb is promoting.  There's a disconnect somewhere, between the hype and the experience, and that concerns me a great deal.  While the videos portrayed a rich human to human experience, it seems that everything is being done to limit that.

I know that @Lizzie monitors these posts, and has shared that she has been communicating with administrators many of the comments that are shared on these boards.  As we are otherwise the powerless recipients of decisions that are made, I appreciate her efforts on our behalf, and do think it's important to continue to voice our concerns. For after all, we are the one in the trenches, and who knows better than us?

Jude

[Amy38]

@Jude7@Sandra126. I just checked my listing and all the titles are back on Nashville choices.  !?!

could the whole thing just have been a computer glitch which seems to be ABNB's default position?

as for the Experiences idea, it could be great for the right traveler and host.  I would happily accompany guest to all the music venues in town....and get paid for it. And while I cant forsee any of my guests needing that kind of babysitting, there probably are some who would like it. And could use it due to language issues.

[John-and-Heather0]

@Jude7 @Curt0

I am begging people to "like" our post on this subject in host voice (add amenities to better match travelers and guests-- including price), because it takes 20 "likes" for AirBNB to read the post. It seems a basic list of what amenities make properties cost more or less would help.

We are all making variations on this suggestion, and none of us are getting their attention.

[Sandra126]

@Amy38, it isn't a glitch. If you look at the big screen prenentation from the Open you will see this new look appearing, and they wouldn't choose to show it if it was a glitch.

[Jude7]

Can you provide a link to your post in Host Voice, @John-and-Heather0? I would be happy to like it.  I agree - it's important to get the attention of the powers that be by speaking as one voice.

I will add, however, that it was not a better list of amenities that I was looking for, but a way to SORT the listings that appear - such as in price order, quality of reviews, numbers of reviews.  Any website that offers an array of products has a "sort" feature. First time I'm using a website that presents hundreds of options in a random order. I want to make sure the listings that best meet my needs appear at the top - as would the hosts of those properties.

Jude

[John-and-Heather0]

@Jude7  yes-- I hope this works for the link:

https://community.airbnb.com/t5/Host-Voice/Add-to-amenities-for-hosts-and-guests-to-find-quot-budget...