You're right, they seem to have a tricky algorithm pushing some places over others.

south_korea_ln

I was in Austin recently and was doing some searching on AirBnB (didn't end up using AirBnB though.

It was very strange - the more you zoomed in, the more AirBnB's there were. If you were zoomed out, it just showed a few, but zoom in and it seemed like there were dozens in a few blocks.

I'm guessing that AirBnB is favoring certain places, and doesn't want to show (until you zoom in) how many places are available on AirBnB.

AskSN

Travelling to Austin from 8th to 12th of December: lodging

I was in Austin recently and was doing some searching on AirBnB (didn't end up using AirBnB though. 

It was very strange - the more you zoomed in, the more AirBnB's there were. If you were zoomed out, it just showed a few, but zoom in and it seemed like there were dozens in a few blocks. 

I'm guessing that AirBnB is favoring certain places, and doesn't want to show (until you zoom in) how many places are available on AirBnB.