The New Split Your Stay Feature

Ruth413
Level 10
Moreton, United Kingdom

The New Split Your Stay Feature

Well I know a lot has been written about the new 2022 Summer Release, but I just found this feature and I must say I am rather shocked at the inaccuracy of it.  Going to try and keep this short.

 

1.  Searched for my property - eventually found it under Tiny Homes - not Shepherds Huts as it is listed.  O.k. Can cope with that as I suppose it is tiny, but it is also a Shepherds Hut.

 

2  Searched Countryside feature - it appeared when zoomed into my village, but with view photo as main photo and heading changed.  Not overly impressed on this one.

 

3. This is the amazing part searched Countryside in Dorset with no dates and as lots of hosts have noted it automatically comes up with a weeks stay.  My Huts are on there but showing as a "Split your stay".  Not bad, but not great as the guest now has to pay 2 lots of services fees, but that is the guests choice I suppose.  Heading has changed along with photo again though. 

 

4.  The shocking part !  This is advertised as "splitting your stay between Oxford and Dorset"  As the two properties advertised are literally 5 miles apart in Dorset Dorset & Oxford.png

 

and Dorset and Oxford are 85 miles apart, with 2 other counties in between this is so wrong in so many ways !

 

The worrying part for me is that if people who don't research their trips properly, who don't know the U.K and specific areas could and are going to get seriously confused.  They will end up booking something that is totally wrong for them and possible try and get refunded as the properties are inaccurately advertised.  Whose fault will that be.  I haven't looked into the new Aircover properly yet but I did see the phrase about Property inaccuracies !   Could this be classed as False Advertising ?

 

I haven't even started on the other listing yet.  It use to be listed under "Cottage" !  and although it is still a cottage, god knows where I will find it !

 

Good luck everyone !

 

 

7 Replies 7
Lenore22
Level 10
California, United States

Hmmm... It is tricky that hosts have less control over how their listings are advertised this way. Could lead to lots of confusion, as you point out. And since as a host, you do not see that it is part of a split stay, you would never really know to help/guide them.

 

Lots of work left to do on this feature...

Ben4581
Level 7
West Hollywood, CA

I am searching for the ability to turn this feature off. So ridiculous. I don't want this. No one asked for this. Why is this not an optional thing? GET RID OF THIS AND JUST LET US BOOK OUR OWN MULTIPLE BOOKINGS.

Agreed! This feature is annoying AF. Makes me not want to use airbnb both as a host and as a guest!! Please allow us to turn this OFF!!

Mike-And-Jane0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

@Ben4581 I am not sure what the problem is. As far as the host is concerned the booking will come through as normal based on your min/max stay requirements.  For guests it just gives ideas that can be ignored if you just do two searches.

the problem is i don't want my options to be cluttered by split stays when that is not what i'm looking for. do you know what the solution is if i want to book just one of those places? i have to click on the split stay, click on the listing, click share, get the link, copy the link, and paste it in the search bar just to see the dates they actually have available. this is a BUG not a feature and it needs to be removed. how hard is it to book consecutive dates? they are ruining the experience for everyone for a small subsection of the mentally handicapped population.

Ruth413
Level 10
Moreton, United Kingdom

@Mike-And-Jane0 @Ben4581   The feature isn't actually a problem, it just needs to be correct.  Unfortunately it is totally incorrect when it advertises splitting your stay between Oxford and Dorset when the two properties are 5 miles apart and both based in Dorset.  That could actually cause a huge problem when the guest doesn't realise, arrives and asks for a refund but it is not what was advertised. 

 

Also I don't like they way it has changed my head photo.  I know it is just of the view and you only find this when you use the new filters,  but that isn't what I think personally sells my property to guests.  I would like to be able to choose myself (which I had) which photo appears first.  

Debra300
Level 10
Gros Islet, Saint Lucia

@Ruth413,

 

I encountered similarly confusing results when I did searches for St. Lucia listings.  After clicking some of the different categories, there were results that included or consisted of only listings that are located on other islands, such as Guadeloupe,  Martinique, Barbados, and St. Vincent.  I can foresee that there will be guests who assume that these listings are in St. Lucia, because that is the country they specified in their search, and don't pay close attention to the location on the listing's description page before making a reservation.  This can lead to a lot of disappointment and frustration for both the guest and the host, especially if the error isn't discovered before the guest travels.

 

My concern is in the event that a guest books a wrong place due to Airbnb's recommendations, and is unable to travel to accommodation, Airbnb simply will cancel the reservation and give a full refund at the host's expense even when it's outside of the free period in the host's chosen cancellation policy.