Airbnb is revamping its website in an effort to attract tourists to locations where it has more places to stay.
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Last year, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said the biggest challenge for the company was thinking like a startup, despite Airbnb’s massive growth over the past decade. The pandemic, he said, had driven the need to simplify and focus for survival. Since then, Airbnb has rolled out hundreds of new features.
Where Airbnb searches were limited primarily by location and then date, the redesign announced Wednesday will introduce 56 different categories. The new search includes home type, as well as features in the home, location type, and even activity.
The company said the upgrade represented the "biggest change to Airbnb in a decade.".
“For 25 years, the way you search for travel online has been the same,” CEO Brian Chesky told reporters in New York this week. “There’s a big search box and [it asks] you one question: ‘Where are you going?’”
"We could show you places you would never think to look for.".
Since launching in December 2020, the supply of available and desirable locations has been highlighted as the biggest potential obstacle to Airbnb's hopes for a huge boost in tourism thanks to pent-up demand as the coronavirus pandemic subsides.
The new features will lead people to lesser-known cities, Chesky said: "We're in 10,000 cities, and most people can't think of that many cities."
"And I think there are a lot of reasons why travel is so concentrated. I think it's because people go on Netflix and watch the series Emily in Paris . . . everyone goes to Paris and most people can't even name small towns in France."
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Chesky said the redesign will build on the “I’m flexible” feature, introduced in May 2021, where guests could see a wider range of options if they didn’t have specific dates. Airbnb said more than 2 billion searches have been made using the feature.
Much of the company’s revenue growth during the pandemic has been driven by people looking to book longer stays to work remotely. Long-term stays of 28 days or longer accounted for 21 percent of all gross bookings on Airbnb in the first quarter, compared to 13 percent in the same period in 2019.
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The redesign adds additional options to it, including “Split Stay,” where Airbnb’s algorithm will suggest two accommodations that could be booked in parallel if no host can accommodate for the entire duration of your stay.
Airbnb is also announcing AirCover for guests. Guests will be protected from host cancellations, check-in issues, and have access to a 24-7 security line. Additionally, Airbnb offers a “Get-What-You-Booked” guarantee. If a listing is not as advertised, Airbnb will refund guests’ money.
All of these updates are intended to bring about a new era of better and more travel!
Information source: ft.com
