@Stephanie
I am really not sure about this:
@Stephanie wrote:
The aim of this update is to benefit both our guest community, by surfacing more suitable options for their stays, and our Host community, by highlighting better what makes your listing stand out. This is in response to the dramatic shift in travel following the pandemic.
For a start, does it really benefit guests to show them a load of pie in the sky dream homes that most of them can't afford? Earlier this evening I went to the site as a guest to show a current guest what was going on. Before entering any price filters, it was showing me listings up to £60,000+ per week. For how many people would these be 'more suitable options'?
I realised after a moment that it was automatically only showing me Airbnb Plus listings without me having chosen that filter because, when I did click on that filter, the results were EXACTLY the same, down to the exact order. Why is that?
If I try to search with price filters for something within my budget, it tells me there are limited or no options (when in fact there are actually loads) and tries to take me elsewhere, frequently to a completely different country. Again, how is that giving guests 'more suitable options'. Brian Chesky has already publicly admitted that Airbnb are trying to drive guests away from popular areas and I am guessing that is the real motivation behind all of these weird search results because I can't believe than anyone with any common sense could really have designed this new system thinking they are making it easier for the guest to find what they are looking for. Honestly, what percentage of guests are looking for grand pianos or a stay in the Arctic? I'd love to see the stats.
It's early days, so I've only sense checked this with a couple of guests, but they both thought the new search system was stupid as it was showing them properties totally out of their reach or, as one put it, "only for seriously rich people". I explained to her that the man in the video (Brian Chesky) was one of those.
As for 'highlighting better what makes your listing stand out', why has Airbnb decided its algorithm is better placed to judge this than the host themselves, who has more often than not trialled and fine tuned this based on experience? Even an Airbnb employee would not be better place to decide this, let alone a BOT.
I have done a few searches with this new system. While the glamorous, outrageously priced properties do stand out, when it comes to more regular listings (which you can only find if you really narrow down your search) what makes those listings stand out is not represented. When I search for shared homes in the whole of South London, it looks like there are only a handful (when there are actually thousands). So, I am not sure how our homes stand out when they are not even visible. Of those that are visible, the algorithm has chosen different - most often not so great - photos and descriptions to lead with, again ignoring what many hosts have chosen knowing from experience what works to sell their listings.
By the way, my most popular listing has suddenly taken a dramatic nose dive from the moment the new update was launched. I know this because I just so happened to look at the views before the launch. On top of that, I have stopped receiving booking requests/enquiries for that particular listing, which has always been my most popular. Funnily enough, that listing is being buried in the searches since the launch.
Anyway, I am glad you are feeding all of this back but I think there is going to have to be a very dramatic change to put this right.