I wouldn’t think you’d want to appear in the beach category- seems like it might lead to guests being disgruntled that it’s not a minute from the door.
I agree that we aren’t beachfront, but AirBnB defines the beach category as a 20-minute walk from a beach (says so on my category definition)
I’ll double-check my listing tomorrow, but I think I’m clear it’s a 5-10 minute drive from our place to the beach.
oh thanks for sharing this, I hadn’t noticed this yet.
big LOL, my rural property is in both Countryside, and Farms, and also… wait for it:
Iconic cities
A home in the urban centre of a globally iconic city.
surely the algo should exclude Farmstays from being in “iconic cities”, lol, but to be fair, we ARE in an amazing region, just 30mins out of the capital city and you can be on my farm.
and i’m sure no one will be shocked to learn that my 3 listings do not all have the same categories.
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Even where they get the categories right there can be anomalous effects on search results - maybe because of situations such as #cocabin described - the categories default to something other than what has been chosen or applied, like cabin becomes cabin with hot tub. My categories were changed at my request but the problem I had with becoming invisible to the search engine was not solved.
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I just saw this article on categories on Airbnb help - it implies that you should see the heading categories whether or not you have any applied to your property:
How to find your listing’s category:
Hosts can check which Airbnb Category a listing is in by taking these steps:
- Go to the Listings section of your account
- Select the listing you want to check
- Click or tap Categories
If the listing is classified in any Airbnb Category (except My search), the name of that category is noted.
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Best I can tell, my category is scenic view. I suppose I may have ticked that box at some point. When guests came into my part of the house, I have a view lot in the back though not much view any longer due to all the large mature trees around. But you can see Mexico from by back yard. In front when a guest is in the front or drives west down my street they can see downtown and the star on the mountain.
From the airbnb room none of this is visible and no one is going to choose my rental for the view. But I don’t think it’s hurting my ranking. Maybe I’ll look into having it removed.
@debflak I’ll let you know how it goes! I called CS a couple of days ago and as you know it takes a few weeks for the support team to review. My season is about over, but hopefully this will set me up better for next year. Thanks again!
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Problem fixed! This is an update on my post - I have now had the categories completely removed from my listing for several days. Today, my listing appeared in the search results ranked in the manner that I had come to expect before categories were applied. I have struggled with this issue for months and I was impacted quite noticeably last fall and winter. Now I will wait to see if the bookings improve for this winter.
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I am in all these categories which are fairly correct and reasonable. No way to edit them or remove. Do you have to call CS to have them removed? I wrote them about removing all. Our booking are way too sparse:(
EDIT #2 CS called me straight away to confirm all categories are wanted removed!! I said yes. Can anyone help me out later today and look me up (blind search) to see where my listing is?
Los Angeles Chatsworth / West Hills / Canoga park area
Listing Name is Tiny Tiki Retro Hideaway.
Thanks!
Campers
A motor home or camping trailer that is stationary.
Amazing views
A home with stunning views.
)
Vineyards
A home within a 10-minute drive of a vineyard or winery.
)
Camping
A tent, camper, or RV set up on the property.
National parks
A home within an hour drive of a National Park.
)
Design
A home with thoughtfully curated design and an inspiring and consistent aesthetic or architecture.
The note from CS
3 weeks???
Hello Julia,
I’m Jen with Airbnb and I help to support our Host community—I hope you are doing well! Congratulations on becoming a Superhost! That’s not an easy thing to do—keep up the great work!
This is to ask your approval that you are allowing me to process removing all of your categories.
Thank you.
Best regards,
Jen S.
I’ve sent your category request to our specialized team who’ll review it. The review process may take up to three weeks. You’ll receive a message from that team in your inbox once the review has been completed.
In the next 48 hours, you might receive an automated email which advises you that your case has been closed—that’s in reference to this specific message thread. Rest assured that your case is still under review and that the specialized team will be reaching out to you through a new message thread.
Please note that submitting a listing does not guarantee inclusion in any category, and a number of factors are used to determine whether a listing qualifies for inclusion in a given Airbnb Category. Categories offered, their eligibility criteria, factors considered, and listings included in them may change at any time without notice.
For Categories based on proximity to a location or activity, listings will only be included if they’re sufficiently close to select points of interest, and not all points of interest are currently included. We plan to continue adding new points of interest to our categorization system over time, so, if your listing isn’t eligible now, it may be in the future.
Typical Airbnb- sending you a long message about the categories and reviewing what categories to put your listing under, when you are asking to be removed from all categories, which I’d assume can be done with a click, and would take a few seconds, not 3 weeks.
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I had several categories applied and had even asked for some of them to be added. I think there is something happening with the categories that affects regular search results for some listings - for some of us the categories make us drop out of sight for regular searches. You have to call CS and insist that the categories can be removed - they told me that they couldn’t be removed, or that I could remove them or that everything was working fine - lots of different responses over the months but finally I heard from another host that they had them removed and they were once again showing up in searches and getting bookings. After hearing that I just kept insisting until the CS rep made the inquiries and found the special team that could remove them.
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Yes, it did take a few weeks for me too
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AIR cs wrote me and are removing me from the categories. Our fingers are crossed that this will change things! 68 hours to go!
update friday 9-8 I see that they did not in fact remove all but left the camping and rv categories on… I wrote them again just now.
update tuesday 9-12 I see that they did not in fact remove all but left the camping and rv categories on… I wrote them again just now.
I’m showing up on page eight…
now waiting 72 hours again
9-18-2023 still not all removed. I think maybe they get removed and AI puts them back on…arrrgggghhh
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Isn’t it charming living in a world where AI bots are allowed to be in charge?
Meanwhile another chatbot reply comes in just like the several before, and of course no new bookings for weeks and weeks. I’m ready to find a travel nurse or some other rental org, does anybody recommend vrbo for a listing like Tiny Tiki Retro Hideaway?.
My hub fell and broke his wrist. At least I have a curtain sewing job, but it is a royal pita, and gosh they chose the most godawful fabric.
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Sorry to hear about your husband - very debilitating and painful I am sure!
VRBO worked great for me when my Air bookings dried up last fall.
Try VRBO. Even I don’t have much luck on VRBO, but I heard a lot others do. Good luck！
So what reason for huge drop from 100+ to 20 views a day ? Very precipitous fall right around mid April 2023? Was that when the categories debutted?//
I believe the categories were announced in the summer 2022 update or whatever they call the changes that they make. I’m not sure when they were implemented. I didn’t notice the drop until the fall because my bookings are mostly in the summer and I had no reason to check the traffic.