Hello, everyone! I went to experiment with booking a listing today, and discovered that not only has the map feature been removed from the front page as a split window, but when you click on the tiny map icon, you can no longer zoom in.
If a guest cannot zoom in on the area where they want to stay, then they have no way of sorting through the 250+ listings. They will certainly never find my property which is a bit more expensive because it is located *right* downtown.
This is NOT acceptable. It is NOT an artifact of the browser either. I tried it under both Chrome and Internet Explorer (I am using Windows 10 on a desktop pc), and it didn't work under either browser. If I click on an individual listing, and then click on the map associated with an individual listing, the +/- zoom feature appears perfectly. SO THIS IS NOT A BROWSER ISSUE, this is an Airbnb coding issue.
As a guest, I WILL NOT BOOK IF I CANNOT ZOOM TO THE RELEVANT AREA. As a host, I WILL NOT LIST MY PROPERTLY ON A SITE WHERE A GUEST CANNOT ZOOM.
I immediately compared Airbnb's interface with VRBO, and VRBO *works perfectly*. I also compared to HomeAway and HomeAway *WORKS PERFECTLY*.
Airbnb needs to fix this problem immediately. It is clearly THEIR PROBLEM since other websites have this problem fixed. I noticed a slowdown in my bookings over the past couple of weeks, and assumed that it was seasonal. But now I think it isn't... I think that Airbnb has made some sort of change in their website that affects the ability of guests to book better located/higher priced listings. Check this out for yourselves!
Hold Airbnb accountable for their technical issues! If you are seeing the same thing that I am, don't assume a slow down in bookings is seasonal... report this problem to Airbnb!
Best,
Susan
