From terrible to completely ridiculous.

[Robin4]

Having just read the 'Summer Release' update link I thought I would check out how much feedback had been taken on board from the first month of the changes to search criteria.  I wish I hadn't....searching for a listing is now complete chaos!

When I bring up a search page now, this morning 12/06/2022 I can't even search my country of Australia any more, let alone a specific area.

Here are my search options..........

The only search box I am faced with is 'Where',  and clicking that brings up 6 general region boxes.

and clicking on the area boxes does absolutely nothing but at least now brings up a destination option. But it took me a while to find that option....guests are going to find this hard to tolerate, particularly those who have used the booking process before.

My bookings have fallen away to zero over the past few weeks and I can't see that there will be any improvement until we get back to the situation where a guest could simply search an area, availability, nightly price without having to jump through all these hoops.

Cheers........Rob

[Matthew1608]

Let's face it.  Airbnb has become an entity run by bots.  The human experience that drew us all to this platform has been bought and sold to the shareholders and the "intelligent machine" is now in charge.

[Jenny]

Hi @Matthew1608 

I'm sorry to hear you feel this way.  

I've dropped you a line in response to your recent DM just to see if there's anything specific you need help with.

Jenny

[Jon3978]

The map search feature is absolutely terrible Jenny

[Suzanne302]

They've had nearly two months now to collect statistics. I'm very interested to see if anything will change. I would bet money that bookings must be down, but that doesn't necessarily mean their profits are down if they've managed to attract expensive bookings from the 2% of the population who have unlimited money and time. Although there hasn't been nearly long enough for marketing to that group, and they aren't exactly the type to book Airbnb to begin with.

I am usually booked up a month out, save a few random days here and there. I still have plenty of open days in July and I have exactly 1 booking in August, and that's only because someone who booked in July needed to change her dates.

Anyone who says this isn't a result of the Summer Release is fooling themselves. Airbnb has seemed to have gone silent on the matter and I notice the admins are promoting older "happy" posts they themselves initiated. We need those posts, and I enjoy those posts, but it's no coincidence.

[Andrew2741]

Has anyone else noticed that on the Australian airbnb website that when searching for properties without using the "Experiences" they are presented with weekly charges instead of currently daily format?  I contacted "help" and they don't see that from their end i.e. i'm guessing the US version of the webpage.

[Wende2]

@Andrew2741    Hello, I'm in the states, same here.  Well it was yesterday, I think because I still had some lower prices that I hadn't raised in March, for the whole year.  Then a friend mentioned that for a discount it's if they book 7 days.  I don't have a discount set, for any reason.  I'm wanting to know who loses that money, it shouldn't be us, that' s how I see it.  After changing the rest of this year, my price shows what it actually is.  By the way, I went in last night to fix those prices, added 1 photo, today I was back at the first spot in, go anywhere search, which I've been first for years, 'til the new chaos came our way.

[John-Henry0]

It’s all about showing profitability to the shareholders! Try vrbo. It seems that’s becoming more popular! 

[Wende2]

@John-Henry0   Hi......there's several on there around me, actually I noticed a lot more are near me now on ABnB.  After this conversation started I took a look to find myself, I used to be first, even when I asked a friend to search my town, 3rd yesterday, still not bad, but still not first. Guess I'll check out vrbo and how it works for us.

[Wende2]

Why why why are they always making it harder.  If my bookings drop, which I've been worried about why I haven't many for Aug yet, guess I know why now.  I really depend on the money I make with ABnB, I'll start looking into another platform if need be. 

[David8879]

Write to investor reations ir@airbnb.com <ir@airbnb.com>;

[David8879]

Update - "ther Sites"  bookings keep coming...unlike "This after Summer Improvement" one.

I guess they don't need our money.

Oh, wait, they just saved 15% by switching (not to Geico), but outsourcing IT to cheap hip cool 164 twiting labor. Next thing to expect is that "Guest fee" (or whatever the meaningless name is ( as the sugar coating does not change "Guest pays more - host gets less" principle) - will go from close to 20% to 40%

Enjoy

[Fred13]

Been trying to make the case with them today to default all searches to start without a filter.  In this way little could go wrong.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/feedback?_ga=2.169695973.573406702.1656767921-514763386.1619692920

[Rebecca181]

Wow. I was thinking of returning to Airbnb to try my hand at hosting for them again. I can see that nothing has changed in regard to Airbnb's lack of commitment to appropriately and thoughtfully accommodate the needs of hosts, even in regard to how host listings show up in searches. I can only assume it is far more important to Airbnb that they keep rolling out "new" and unneeded( non)-improvements. Why not beta-test this sort of thing first (given how critical the search function is to both hosts and guests) and get some feedback on how it is or is not working before rolling something like this out? Completely nuts. 

[Diane34]

My reservations and inquiries have been zero in the last four weeks seriously. At first I was still getting reservations. Now even with a lower price than my competitors, no interest. I was thinking it might be a delayed result of the rollout in June too, I hope it picks up. The other factor is there are about five new Airbnb's each month so my competition is stiff. Most are more expensive than mine, so people do have the bucks to stay swanky. I am trying to attract families who want a good deal and comfortable place to stay.

[David8879]

The reason for bookings falling off the cliff is most likely that now, when one searches for specific city - entire region is popping up on the map. So, unless the one who searches knows exactly where to zoom in the map area presuming one is familiar with the region) - there is no chance of snowball in hell that your listing will be found.

Just like any other company airbnb is in the business of making money  - to airbnb.

I still hope that someone in IT department of ABNB screwed up, but I suspect that was intentional.

Hey - in T&C we all agreed on there was nothing that ABNB obligated to do for us - right?

[Robin4]

@David8879 

Just did an incognito search of my area and things are almost back to where they should be. They have now dropped the 'I am Flexible' stuff.....in the destination search box just type in your general required city or area and a broad selection of properties will now be displayed without any further filtering. You can refine your area search by putting in dates and using other filters just as has always been the case.

The only thing missing now is the profile hosts past history.......from the area search page, searchers have no idea whether they are looking at a first time host or a 1,000 stay professional! A very strange bit of information to discard as it took up no space and was a constructive tool for guests to assess the competence of a host. 

Hopefully next time I do a search that information will be restored again, and you might start getting some views and bookings back again David. Mine are pretty much back to normal again, I have had 3 bookings in the past week, which is not bad considering I have blocked a large chunk of my upcoming booking calendar when this problem appeared, and much of that has been taken up with other off platform bookings now!

All the best David.

Cheers........Rob

@Stephanie 

[David8879]

@Robin4 Same thing is happening with my listing now, but just as you - I already booked quite a few stays on the "other" platform. May be next time airbnb will hire better programmers LOL 

[Fred13]

@Stephanie  That is awesome. I know it takes a while, why didn't get too bummed out right off the bat. 

Moving the new filters in parallel (not in series) with the old search path would do the trick. The rest than is cosmetics. I could see they added some new 'hot links' lately. Nice touch.

Thanks for the update, it is encouraging; especially for folks clobbered financially by this change.

[Stephanie]

Hi @Fred13 ,

I just wanted to let you know that this is one of the newer updates to the summer release following all of the valuable feedback Hosts have shared. This is detailed as follows:

"Though many guests are browsing Airbnb Categories for inspiration and booking, the majority continue to book stays by entering a specific destination and travel dates in search. Once guests enter a location, they are using the “All homes” tab – just as they did previously – to view all stays available in a particular location and book a listing that’s right for them. We’re now looking at ways to make the “All homes” tab more prominent when guests search a location.

We’re also exploring updates to the booking experience, including the display of categories, further refinements to map searches and how to best show your review counts. We’ll continue working with Host advisors and come back to you in July with more details."

We've updated the Resource Centre article to reflect the updates we have made since I first shared the FAQ over a week ago - you can check them out here:

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/resources/hosting-homes/a/host-questions-answered-airbnbs-summer-release-53...

Whenever we update the article again, I'll be sure to pop back and let you all know!

Thanks,

Stephanie

[Lorna170]

Please advise as to how your programmers or marketing folks determined that the search needed to be changed?  I showed the Airbnb page to my 60+ brother and sister-in-law.  I asked them to find and rent one of the 5 airbnbs/Vxxx that are within 1 block of my daughter. 

They could not navigate Airbnb at all.

They went to Vxxx and booked in 10 minutes.

They have never booked online before.  Therefore they have no preconceptions as to how an OTA should work.