Difficult to find listings for St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands

[Stacy30]

Hello!

I'm new to being an Airbnb host, and I was hoping someone might have advice on a search issue, not just for my listing but for searching for rentals in my entire geographic area.

I - and my friends and family who're helping me test out searching for and finding my listing - am having a strange issue: When I search for "St. Croix" or "St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands," 1) we have to sift through mounds of listings that are all over the world - Europe, Australia, California, and on and on - and 2) also never finding my listing at all.  We're only finding my listing if we a) type in the broader region of (all) "U.S. Virgin Islands" (which then makes you sift through all the listings in all the Virgin Islands and lists mine quite far down the list!) or b) type in "St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands" (which lists hundreds of places all over the world) and then use the map function to keep zooming in on a map until I'm finally zoomed in on this one island in the Caribbean. (Which is even harder to do on my iPhone than it is on the laptop.)

Any advice for a newbie? I'm at a loss regarding the bigger search issue; I submitted this as official feedback on the Airbnb site but wonder if it will ever be seen/addressed by the company. But for my own listing, should I be typing something I haven't thought of in my listing "location" to make it at least show up somewhere on the list when someone searches for St. Croix, even if they have to sift through hundreds to get to it? I just wonder if many people will take the time to figure out that they have to back up and search for (all) the "U.S. Virgin Islands" or use the map function . . . 

My listing: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/19806063

Thank you SO much!

Stacy

[Steve143]

Hello @Stacy30,

When you type "St. Croix" does a list of suggesttions appear like in the screenshot below?

I typed just "st. croix" and the list appeared as seen below. When I selected "St. Croix, St. Croix US Virgin Islands" a map of the island appeared on the right.

Steve.

[Stacy30]

Hi, Steve,

That's so interesting that your map immediately filters down to St. Croix, because, unfortunately, whenever I or my family/friends - who all live in several different states in the United States - choose that suggestion from the list (yes, we do get that same list of suggestions when we start to type "St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands") or just type the whole phrase in manually, our map still shows pins all over the world, and our search results are still filled with listings from all over the world (even the first page of results is mostly Europe; so strange!). 

I should also clarify that this problem is worst on the full Airbnb website's desktop version, whereas the mobile app on the phone and iPad seem to be slighly more accurate (not as many geographically inaccurate listings to sift through, sometimes does actually show my listing but not always, often shows the map feature correctly, etc.). But the app will sometimes only show my listing if filters are applied (such as a narrow price range).

I truly appreciate your kindness in looking into this for me and sending a screen shot! And I'm glad to know that others in the world do find St. Croix's listings more easily! Perhaps there is some odd glitch or an algorithm issue . . .

Thank you!

Stacy