Airbnb’s summer release is here — and it’s a big one.
The updates, which include increasingly refined maps and new payment options, come on the heels of a record year in 2022. And this year, Airbnb is expecting a whopping 300 million guest arrivals.
Fifteen years pursuit its launch in 2008 and without weathering a pandemic, Airbnb’s growth has been driven by three things, Catherine Powell, Airbnb’s global throne of hosting, told TPG during a phone interview: a pent-up desire to travel and connect, people turning to hosting as a new source of income, and the tech company’s unfurled transferral to innovation.
Those three things were moreover top of mind for the platform’s most recent release, which is now live worldwide.
“With this release, we’ve had nearly 400 upgrades and innovations in the last couple of years,” Powell explained, “and these are innovations listening to [and] understanding what our guests need, what our hosts need.”
Powell moreover explained that many of this release’s innovations are tied directly to keeping the Airbnb wits increasingly affordable for guests — with increasingly transparency in the booking process. In fact, she explained, Airbnb is specifically innovating virtually “affordability, nomination for guests [and] stuff worldly-wise to price competitively for hosts.”
After getting a firsthand squint at the new releases, I can say that, starting now, Airbnb is easier to use and increasingly functional than ever. Here are just a few updates you should know about:
Airbnb’s now a lot increasingly transparent
One major upgrade is that Airbnb users can now see the price of a listing inclusive of fees (but without taxes) wideness the entirety of the platform from the minute you start searching. So, now you don’t have to worry well-nigh falling in love with what seems like a moderately priced listing, only to have your heart wrenched once you click in and the price skyrockets (thanks to something like an above-average cleaning fee).
The fee-inclusive pricing is misogynist in search results, price filters, maps and listing pages. A quick click on the total price will moreover reveal the word-for-word price dispersal so you know what fees are included and how much they cost.
With this full-length — an expansion of last year’s all-in price transparency — “there’s no subconscious surprise of a fee you weren’t expecting,” Powell said.
And speaking of price, one heady new full-length is that now in the U.S. and Canada, guests can use Klarna to typesetting stays and pay with four interest-free installments over six weeks. On bookings over $500, users in the United States can wield to pay in monthly installments.
Another way Airbnb is stuff increasingly transparent is with the checkout process.
We’ve all heard stories well-nigh Airbnb bookings that come with a list of checkout chores increasingly tedious than many of us have for our own homes. Over the last few years, Airbnb users have taken to social media to share some of those unexpected asks that suddenly make a vacation finger like work — plane when there’s a upper cleaning fee tying to the booking.
Frankly, people are tired of it.
“We heard it loud and well-spoken from guests. I think everybody did,” Powell said. “We spent a lot of time looking at the data and analyzing, and the vast majority of our hosts are reasonable … but there were outliers.”
To alimony those outliers at bay, users can now see the full set of checkout details on a property’s listing page surpassing booking, meaning that if increasingly wearying cleaning tasks are a non-starter for you, you’ll know superiority of time.
Private rooms are making a comeback
When Airbnb originally launched, it was all well-nigh helping people find a room in someone’s home. Now, the visitor is doubling lanugo on that original function by introducing an Airbnb Rooms category that’ll curate increasingly than 1 million listings. Rooms, Powell noted, is one of the most affordable ways to use Airbnb, with over 80% of private rooms costing less than $100 per night, with an stereotype rate of $67 per night.
Now guests can learn increasingly well-nigh who they’re staying with through a “Host Passport” that allows the host to share personal information like some fun facts and languages spoken. Guests can moreover now increasingly hands find private rooms with tying private bathrooms or rooms with locks.
Better Wishlists, maps and consumer support
If you’re like me, you have a slew of Airbnb Wishlists for destinations virtually the world that you’ve curated over the years — and then never do anything with. Now, Wishlists have been redesigned so you can hands search for properties in a Wishlist for a select stage range to finally make that dream trip happen. You can moreover make notes well-nigh each property to remember why you loved it in the first place.
With new and improved map features, guests can now find listings closer to whatever brought them somewhere in the first place. For example, instead of just searching for “Paris,” you can now find listings near the Eiffel Tower — and then see how long it might take you to walk there from the listing. Other updates include faster performance, pins that stick when zooming and moving virtually the map, and plane mini-pins that can help you find plane increasingly similar listings.
Another new full-length is a special 24/7 support team defended to people who are currently traveling. According to Airbnb, the team has a goal of answering 90% of calls in English within two minutes or less.
There will moreover be instant rebooking credits offered to travelers if a host cancels a stay within 30 days of inrush so that the travelers can readily typesetting a new place for the trip.
What’s next
The updates whilom are just a few of the many changes coming for travelers (and hosts) with Airbnb’s spate of summer updates. But of course, here at TPG, we’re unchangingly curious well-nigh what’s next.
“I think we will protract to listen, we will protract to understand what the needs of guests and hosts are and protract to innovate to meet those needs,” Powell said. “What the innovations will be in November? I don’t yet know, but we’re very, very focused on ensuring that we remain really dynamic in terms of innovations.”