Airbnb has decided to eliminate the Neighborhood filter

[Jennifer93]

This is very upsetting and I am wondering if other hosts are aware of this issue? I am looking for an Airbnb rental close to my house which is already booked (I am a host). There is no way to narrow down the search and look by neighborhood anymore.

I called the oh so not helpful hotline for us "Super Hosts" and got a representitve who wasn't even aware that there were any changes to the site. She asked someone higher up and apparently it's true.

This is an absolute joke! I know for a fact that guests look for specific neighborhoods and a lot of mine have shared that they wanted to be close to their family members who live nearby and chose my place with that in mind.

I am not sure who I should contact about this, anytime I try to call one of the 3 Airbnb numbers that I have, I get people on the other end who really don't seem to have much information or the authority to get me in touch with someone who can help.

At my wits end here......

Jennifer

[Cynthia-and-Chris1]

Personally, I am glad they did away with this because the neighborhood they selected for me was absolutely incorrect and located in Oregon, not Washington. 

EDIT since you are a local:  They had me listed as "Hayden Island" when I'm most definitely clearly in Vancouver - or even more precise, Hazel Dell.

[Jennifer93]

Airbnb Customer Experience Colette S, Mar 22, 12:12 CDT: Hello Jennifer, This is Colette with Airbnb's trip experience team and I'm so sorry our call was disconnected. We’re so thankful for hosts like you, who are committed to providing extraordinary hospitality. I really appreciated you taking time out of your day to reach out to us about the search option for neighborhoods. During our call, I let you know that our site did recently undergo some updates. After consulting with some colleagues here with me, I found out the neighborhood search option is no longer offered on Airbnb.com. I apologize for the confusion this has created. I understand you appreciate this option and would like to put this in for feedback to Airbnb. I was taking notes during our call and have submitted them to Airbnb. We are always working to improve our products and policies, and we encourage you to submit your feedback in direct reply to this email. Even when unable to accommodate all requests, Airbnb truly values user feedback -- your voice is both powerful and essential. I’ll be sure to pass your thoughts on to the right team. Thank you for your time and contribution and again, I'm so sorry our call was dropped. If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to let me know in a direct reply to this email and I would be more than happy to help. Best regards, Colette

[Helga0]

@Jennifer93, as said above, the filter never was reliable. I never used it, because in my town, Paris, it was very limited. You could get some tourist areas, the postal areas and that was it. Outside the tourist areas, you  got an option for half an hour walk. Understandably so, as putting all neighborhoods in the list would make it way to long. 

What always worked and still does, is the search on the map. A few days ago, I looked for my neighbor's place on the app and I think the new search function is very comfortable. 

Adding the postal code with the town still narrows it down to the right area.

You can still type the address, street, area code and town, and get the results. The filter is still there, but not so prominently.

[Jennifer93]

Thank you Helga! I changed the name in my listing and added the postal code.

[Helga0]

@Jennifer93, that was a misunderstanding, but I believe the area in the listing name will be helpful. Not sure for the city code. 

I meant, when you search as a guest and you already know that you will have a training / date / business meeting on xy street 12345 town, you type that address in the search field and if there is at least one listing in the street, the map appears showing the whole neighborhood. If there is no listing in xy street, then an error message appears. In that case, it's logical to try with the area code and town, without the street.

I get a lot of guests coming for a training, in a training center nearby, but not on my street. I guess they all find me that way. They often say, that my listing was right on top and for sure it is not on top, if you only type "Paris".

My title does not mention the town, but airbnb has the whole address.

Whatever you have in the title, can be found by a google search, when people type that in a google search field. Your profile shows Portland Oregon, so google would find you in a search for Portland apartments. Flanders is not in the profile, so it will help in a direct search. I guess you can skip the postal code, as people maybe won't type it in a google search. You can also write it in the first description field and add some other keywords, that you believe people would use in a search engine to find apartments in your neighborhood. 

Google ranks keywords in a title higher than in a text. Image descriptions also rank higher than normal text.

Editing your listing till you find the right title and text will push you in the airbnb search, so that's always a good idea to change things 😉

[Yunah0]

it seems that the neighborhood filter for San Francisco anyway has been permanently eliminated. this is really annoying - it would be much easier not to wade through hundreds of  homes in areas that are of no interest.