With effect from the next major version, the endpoints /geocoding and /places will be deprecated. The ETA is approx July 2018. But fear not, they shall be replaced by superior services.
The new endpoints are
/geocode:
https://api.openrouteservice.org/geocode/search? (GET)
https://api.openrouteservice.org/geocode/search/structured? (GET)
https://api.openrouteservice.org/geocode/reverse? (GET)
/pois:
https://api.openrouteservice.org/pois? (POST)
These services are not backwards compatible with the old endpoints. Specifically, the /geocode service is now served directly via Pelias. So, if you’re familiar with that, good for you! The new endpoints are already in place, so you can start migrating your code.
Note, that /pois is also available as Flask microservice, so everyone can host a OSM POI service locally within minutes. See Github for details.