Ten years ago Airbnb co-founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia inflated three airbeds in their San Francisco apartment and started what has become a global phenomenon in travel.
Now, it is one of the world’s largest accommodation platforms with 4.5 million places to stay in 81,000 cities. Over the last decade, Airbnb hosts earned more than $41billion and guests have checked into an Airbnb more than 300 million times.
Here is what is planned next:
New Property Types
The Airbnb Host Community is broad and diverse with more than 4.5 million places to stay around the world. Over the years the types of properties on the platform have become increasingly diverse from treehouses to boutique hotels but it’s still only possible to navigate by three property types – Shared Space, Private Room and Entire Home. This makes it hard for hosts to stand out and guests can’t always find what they’re looking for.
To address this, Airbnb will add four new property types to its platform – Vacation Home, Unique Space, B&B and Boutique. This will give a greater choice of accommodation options to guests, provide greater transparency over the types of accommodation available, and help hosts better showcase what’s unique about them to better match with guests’ preferences. From today, Airbnb is making tools available to hosts to categorise their listings to an unprecedented level of detail in the travel industry, not only making it possible to organise everything by these seven core property types, but also opening the door to sophisticated search capabilities that will allow any traveller to find the host and home that’s right for them. All seven property types will launch to guests this summer.
Airbnb Collections
Airbnb was initially designed mainly for solo travel but over the years, millions of people have found the platform suited to a range of different types of travel, whether that be families who want extra space and a place to cook, to adventurers who are looking for somewhere to stay off the beaten track. To meet the needs of such a diverse range of travellers, Airbnb is launching Collections – perfect homes for every occasion. Launching today are Airbnb for Family and Airbnb for Work with Collections for Social stays, Weddings, Honeymoons, Group getaways and Dinner parties coming later this year.
New Tiers – Airbnb Plus
To broaden the appeal of Airbnb to even more guests, they are introducing a new tier of homes that have been personally verified for quality and comfort. Starting with 2000 homes in 13 cities available to book right now, Airbnb Plus is intended for guests looking for beautiful homes, exceptional hosts and added peace of mind.
New Tiers – Luxury
Following last year’s acquisition of Luxury Retreats, Airbnb will preview a new standard in travel – Beyond by Airbnb. Launching soon, Beyond by Airbnb will offer custom designed trips of a lifetime, including the world’s finest homes, custom experiences and world-class hospitality.
Recognition – Investing in the Airbnb Community
Through its Superhost program, which now includes 400,000 hosts globally, Airbnb already recognises its most loved hosts. The program will expand to offer 14 new and updated benefits including better exposure, custom URLs and exclusive benefits on smart home products.
Visit airbnb.com/superhost for more info.
Later this year, Airbnb will also recognise its best guests with a new guest membership program offering benefits across the entire trip. Super guest will launch initially to 10,000 guests as a trial this summer before being rolled out to Airbnb’s wider guest community before the end of the year.
