Search filters

Search filters

Your search algorithm leads guests to homes far from the search town on my Washington CT and Roxbury CT 16 listings.  When a guest requests Washington CT the Washington CT listings should appear first just as hotel searches like expedia and booking.com is designed - try it.  Then the out of town listings should appear as you choose.  Airbnb's algorithm uses popularity to put low cost popular listings first endangering or misleading and inconveniencing guests at the least by sending them to higher crime and poor neighborhood choices (New Milford, Torrington, etc) that are often more than a half hour drive to Washington down country back roads. When a guest chooses an exclusive town like Washington know as the affluent tourist destination with great restaurants they should have the Washington listings first - just as any hotel search works on the OTAs.  If a guest searches Manhattan, they should not get Queens or Harlem first - those home locations should all be listed after the Manhattan listings.  This is the most serious problem for hosts and guests that I have found on Airbnb and really is an obvious correction that will increase guest satisfaction and profitability to airbnb as the actual location has much higher rents and commissions.  It will reduce inconvenience, driving times, and danger to guests and be much more truthful and helpful to guests and hosts.  Thank you, Stephen Brighenti 

3 Comments
Anonymous

@Stephen45 Harlem is in Manhattan. There is no reason that a search for Manhattan listings shouldn't include it. 

 

There already is a filter that allows guests to hone in on a specific town rather than a broad radius around it: it's called the Map. An initial search for Washington CT will display a broad radius that includes neighboring towns, but a guest who is looking specifically for your town need only take one or two seconds to zoom in on the map to remove those properties from their search results. 

 

 

There are plenty of guests who prioritize convenience and location over price, and those may well be your ideal customers. However, a lot of guests choose Airbnb specifically because they're budget-minded, and are willing to stay a longer distance from the tourist attractions in order to save some money. Others yet care more about the property type than the location. When the search algorithm works well, it accounts for all of those possibilities.

 

 

The quality of a neighborhood is highly subjective, and it's really up to the guests to do their research and choose the location that suits them best. All the information they need is readily available with Google. I don't see any merit in Airbnb tipping the scales in favor of wealthier neighborhoods, as those aren't necessarily more desirable to every guest. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen45
Level 2

Thx for your comment but my guests are being misled and upset by it - they search a town and the first 3 pages are locations that are often 1/2 hour away.  The filters are seldom used in search criteria - just as in hotel searches - which prioritize the hotel listings in the towns before going to more distant locations.  Just as hotel guests would like to stay in the towns they search so do vacation home renters.  Instead - AirBNB lists 6 pages of distant locations in very unsatisfactory non-touris locations instead of clearly listing the requested locations.  Guests always have prices in front of them to factor that in their choice - but since location is the search criteria it should be the algorithm criteria first to avoid deception, dissatisfaction and often driving unnecessarily.  

Larisa4
Level 9

I find the map feature pretty easy to use when I want a specific neighborhood. I research the neighborhoods in the city I'm interested in and then zoom in to filter out what I don't want to see.  It's pretty straightforward.