Airbnb Categories

The site where you manage your Airbnb categories is called Elevate:

https://elevate.translated.com/categories

I do think Airbnb has started trying to bury or hide the ability to manage your categories. They no longer link to Elevate from the “Property Type” page where your categories are listed; they don't mention the fact that you can apply for new categories if your property isn't automatically assigned to them; and they make it sound like a completely automatic process that you have no say in, even though you do, to some degree. 

The fact that guests can no longer filter or browse based on Categories is another clue that they are phasing it out, and it possibly means that there's no longer any value in being assigned to a particular category.

As for having your categories removed, that happened to me once, prior to Hospitable, when I connected Guesty Lite to my Airbnb account for a free trial. That trial lasted all of 10 minutes after I realized the damage it had caused. Hospitable has taken great care to not touch your categories or accessibility amenities, so be sure to reach out to support if you think something is amiss.

When you reapply for your missing categories, be sure that the listing description and photos make it abundantly clear that you belong in that category. It probably also helps to have guest reviews as independent validation of your claims. Also expect at least a 2 month wait before your category application gets reviewed. I'm still waiting on one that was submitted Oct. 25.

Airbnb removed the Categories feature back in September. It was touted as the “biggest change in a decade” but it seems to not have worked as planned since it has been quietly removed: https://skift.com/2025/09/25/airbnbs-categories-were-meant-to-reinvent-the-search-box-now-theyre-gone/

​@Eli Stoughton The article has no first-hand information in it, just third-party observations. Although the categories have been removed from the guest-facing search filters, they do still show you what categories you’re in on the “Property Type” tab, and they do still let you manage your categories through the Elevate site (although they’ve made it hard to find and they seem to have slowed down on processing requests). So it’s possible that they’re still using categories under the hood somehow. Like if a guest types “beachfront condo Ocean City MD” into the search bar, it could theoretically be leveraging the categories under the hood to show search results. So until they completely delete the categories from the “Property Type” page or take down the Elevate page, I think it’s worth the little bit of effort to keep your listings tagged with accurate categories.

I don't even think it's possible to search like that anymore (unless they are A/B testing different features). I am unable to search something descriptive like you suggested.