Has anyone experienced poor usability if they search their own city? Load up the VPN and suddenly it works? I have a suspicion that airbnb likes to prevent airbnb strata-enforcers from searching the site.
Of course, Airbnb has been accused of manipulating data before, when it was noticed that they removed a large number of listings just before handing a dump to the NY attorney general, so I wouldn't put it past them by any means.