Search filters and search results

Product Feedback
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Dear peerspace! I love you! You made a huge difference in my business over last 3 years. 500+ bookings were amazing. However, lately, I see a significant drop in inquiries, a very significant drop. My space sits pretty much vacant for the last few weeks with some exception of weekends. Not sure why.

I decided to research the market and check whether there is some new better value space nearby. I thought of maybe dropping the price or adjusting my listing in some other way to make it more competitive. To my surprise, I could barely find my listing at all. It was on page eight among some spaces with no reviews. Who keeps scrolling to page eight? The only price filter available for guests is “under 100 dollars”. My space is 60, so if I listed it at 50 it would make zero difference. There is no filter for “instant book” or “top rated” or “power host” or “response time”. In other words, there is no way for my space to stand out thanks to its good record. No reward for being a successful host.

Moreover, I reached out to support and was advised that

"Our teams are currently running some tests on sort order. Unfortunately, we do not have a timeline on when the tests will be completed, but your listing placement will shift around during this time. "

Could you please update us on the testing mentioned above. Its unfortunate that hosts have to sit and wait and loose income due to testing, especially if there is no timeline. Also PS fees raise for guests to 9% is not helping as it does make our listings more expensive and therefore less attractive.

Guests started finding my space on other platforms, which had rarely been the case before. So i am turning my attention to those platforms and to finding new platforms.

Has Peerspace considered more filtering options like “instant book”, “power host”, “top rated”, “shortest response time”, etc, etc . Is there a business reason why there are so few filtering or search options? Same about smaller price increments in search? Wouldn’t it be helpful for guests to just enter “from” “to” price range or make price increments smaller?

Please advise,
thank you!

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Thanks for sharing Karina, my bookings are very light all of a sudden as well. I have recently joined another site due to the slowdown on Peerspace as well. Yes it would be good for them to update us on this testing.

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Thank you for sharing and doing the due diligence of research into why your inquiries have dropped! I have noticed the same downtrend but wasn’t sure what was driving it. Would appreciate some insight from the Peerspace team on this topic as well!

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Do you mind sharing what other platforms you’re using?

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We usually got 2-3 bookings a month, mostly for film shoots. We were listed as a production space. There were also a few inquiries for private parties—— I don’t really know how those guys found us!
Last month there was a big falloff, just like previous writers above. My own searches revealed that we were getting buried by other listings.
Then I set up 2 new listings, for events and “off-site” whatever that is. Right away I got a ton of requests for private parties. (Oddly, you have to list a different hourly rate in order to add a listing.)
So I’m guessing that peerspace has set their algorithms to favor new listings. Understandable because they would want to encourage new hosts! But kind of bad for veterans who have been on the site for a while. I suppose you could keep relisting and try to fool the robot, but that may not be a smart idea. Or go elsewhere…

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I do not think Peerspace is working to get their Power Host veterans off the site, I think they are trying something new on their end which will help the current hosts and new hosts a better platform. I also have felt a significant drop in guest. I am also making a few changes to my profile: adding new pictures, spending more time on social media and other items.

The only advice I can tell you is keep in contact with Peerspace they may fix it sooner than we all expect.

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The #1 thing Peerspace needs is a better keyword search (or ANY would be nice). If you want a specific kind of space - say an “indoor pool”(or anything really) - there is no way to search for that by keyword. All this filtering is great (not really) but KEYWORD SEARCH gets you straight to what you want. The rest is some form of wild goose chase (for renters.)

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I think this is an excellent idea

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I have had the exact same experience, very busy as a new listing, and then absolutely drop off in inquiries and bookings to pretty much nothing. i was very confused and then also came to the conclusion after lots of research that after a certain period of time you get buried at the bottom. i can barely find my listing anymore, and only select listings appear in the mobile app. Pretty disappointing and misleading when you are first starting out.

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This is exactly my experience as well. It is very frustrating.

I am a Power Host, and have over 40 five-star reviews. We’ve been on Peerspace for 3 years.

I noticed a significant drop off in inquiries in the last 3 months. With all the changes Peerspace is implementing, I thought it would be useful if I checked to see if I could FIND my listing, just like Karina.

I typed in that I was looking to do a photo shoot in NY for next week, no other filters. I went through the initial 14 pages worth of results, and couldn’t find my listing. Additionally, I zoomed into my neighborhood and my listing wasn’t on the map either.

It is very disturbing to see Peerspace show new listings, no reviews, poor photos ahead of those listings that have done the work to ensure a smooth, professional experience.

If anybody has any advice, please let us know!

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They have told me that the new searches are only supposed to happen to 50% of the visitors, but we have dropped to zero new inquiries and zero new bookings since the “tests” started, and we have over 450 5-star ratings and are a Power Host. We used to get multiple new inquiries per day, now we get zero. We haven’t seen a 50% drop (as would be expected with the change supposedly only seen by 50% of the people), but we’ve seen a 100% drop. This is the most devastating thing that could have happened to us.

We have Instant Booking turned on, which is supposed to have us appear earlier in searches, but we have been pushed from spot #2 to spot #292 behind locations that have no ratings and some don’t even have photos yet. Not sure if it makes sense for Peerspace to help people build businesses on their platform, then put those businesses out of business to help new hosts. There needs to be a way to help new hosts without destroying existing hosts. Right now, this setup is not working and it’s very detrimental to existing, successful hosts.

What would make more sense would be for them to continue to have successful spaces appear earlier in searches because we’ve proven ourselves and get 5-star ratings, and we make the platform look good, and they can then sprinkle the new listings among those listings.

Unfortunately, the path they have chosen cuts our business to zero and unfortunately, we won’t be in business much longer if these “tests” and eventual changes, continue much longer.

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Ditto all of the comments above. We are also ‘Power Hosts’ with over 400 bookings with Peerspace and all 5-star ratings. Our listings now appear nowhere in search results. Filters don’t actually even work the way they are setup now (i.e. selecting ‘elevator’ or ‘kitchen’ doesn’t even bring up our listings even though we have both for all of our listings.)

I have suggested that Power Hosts should have a special icon or indicator next to the listing search results or some way to denote these are ‘proven’ listings that have track record creating exceptional experiences for guests. Nothing has been added so far to include this. I keep bringing this up with Peerspace mgmt and executive team, but nothing has been done to date.

This latest change seems like the opposite way they should be treating those exceptional hosts that have helped put Peerspace on the map. I hope they read this and make some changes…and fast!

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Well written, it would be nice to have a Powerhost option just like the Instabook feature.

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This is what I just received back from help@peerspace.com:

"The product and development teams have recently been conducting various tests regarding searching and sort order of listings. Only a subset of users (no more than 50% at a given time) see the different results. We have had several reports from hosts regarding this and we’ve been in touch with the teams conducting the tests and can share the following: the tests will be going on for the foreseeable future, we do not have an end date that has been provided, but the end goal is to ultimately make searching more effective.

We’ll gladly follow up once we have more information but at this time there’s nothing we can do to alleviate the sort order issue."

Bottom line is that there doesn’t seem to be any changes coming soon. No response regarding ranking / featuring Power Host listing, no response as to why filters don’t work at all, etc. We have been loving Peerspace for 3 years now and how done tons of business together. These new policies and changes are pretty frustrating actually and have had a MAJOR effect on our business.

As a platform, Peerspace has two sets of customers – guests and hosts. You would think that Peerspace would value both of these groups equally and not rank guests over hosts as some of these changes make us feel (i.e. new cancellation policy favoring hosts that offer extremely flexible booking terms, posting new listings at top of search results over veteran Power Hosts, etc).

These changes no doubt will force otherwise loyal hosts to find and develop other means for generating leads in order to stay in business – direct marketing, other platforms, etc.

Would be nice to see a reply from Peerspace in this thread…

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@Mark_H , @Eli_P , @Charles_C and other folks on the thread:

Let there be no question that we value you all and overall host community. As Mark said, Peerspace has two sets of customers – guests and hosts. The marketplace will not grow and improve without both audiences being satisfied. That said, we can’t solve everything at once.

The Host Forum has been a great way for us to hear more consistently about the pain points you all are finding with Peerspace. We are listening and are taking action. Here are a few things we are working on this quarter to make your experience better:
1. PowerHost filter: guests will be able to filter search results to focus on just PowerHosts.
2. Payout reconciliation: we are creating a dashboard where you will be able to match your payouts to the transactions that make up those payouts. I know this has been a big pain point for our most active hosts.
3. Weekend pricing: You’ll be able to set different prices by day/time. This has been a big pain point for those of you whose pricing differs for weekdays vs. weekends.
4. Sorting in search: We will continue to iterate on our sorting algorithm. We clearly don’t have it right yet.

Lastly, I want to set expectations that the marketplace will continue to evolve over time. Change is inevitable as we try to improve the experience for both guests and hosts.

Thank you for continuing to be great partners to Peerspace.

Eric

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Thank you Eric. Well written for both guests and hosts can appreciate.

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Hi @Eric -

Thanks so much for your response. And thank you for updating us on improvements in the works. It seems like you and the team are working hard and we appreciate it.

However, I don’t feel like any of the four coming attractions you mentioned directly address the primary concern of hosts and power hosts on this thread. Can you explain why so many of us are experiencing such a drop in our inquiry rate and therefore a subsequent drop in bookings and income? Perhaps the sort function you mention is meant to help address this, but can you offer a theory as to why so many of us are feeling the pinch all of the sudden?

The pain point we feel the most is that our businesses are seemingly drying up, all coincidentally when the search algorithm is being tested/tweaked/adjusted.

Please let us know your thoughts on this when you have a moment. We all appreciate your feedback and support.

Warmly,
Dean
Frogtown Magical Cabin, Los Angeles

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Hi @Jenn_Dean_L,

If you would like someone to look at your listing specifically, please email help@peerspace.com and we can give you a break down related to your account as each host is different and may not be experiencing a decrease.

As @Eric mentioned before the search feature is an ongoing project and not many hosts are affected by it as 50% of guests are seeing different versions of the site when they go on.

Search is determined by specific activity the guest puts and as well as other facts which we outline here.

As a reminder our team won’t always jump on to answer every feature request as the forum is designed more so for hosts to interact with each other and we have a road map for features for hosts and guests each quarter.

The current features are the ones that Eric outlined above, note that we don’t have an eta on when these will launch but they are in the pipeline. We periodically check the forums for feedback or feature requests.

Thanks again for your feedback I will pass it to our product team.

Warmly,

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I am pretty new to Peerspace, and have listed 2 properties in the last 2 months. Both are vintage farm houses and both have the word “farm” in their title. However, when I use the word “farm” in the filter, my listings are nowhere to be found. There are other farmhouse style properties and some actual farms, but most are in other states. Not sure what to do about this. I’m also wondering if there is a way to connect with an actual Peerspace staff person for advice. It seems that the only
access for feedback or to get questions asked is this forum, which I do appreciate.

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The search engine is more of a “suggestion engine” really

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