SAN FRANCISCO, May 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Inspired by the
major shift in how people are traveling and anticipating the
unprecedented travel rebound, we are today introducing more than
100 upgrades to refine and improve every aspect of the Airbnb
service, from our website and app to our community support and
policies. The Airbnb 2021 Release adds features to give guests even
more flexibility when planning their travel and to make it simple
for anyone to become a Host.
"We are seeing three fundamental shifts in travel as people
become less tethered and more flexible," said Brian Chesky, Co-Founder and CEO of Airbnb.
"People can travel anytime, they are traveling to more places and
they are staying longer. The lines between travel, living and
working are blurring and we are upgrading our service to make it
easier for people to integrate travel into their lives, and for
more people to become Hosts."
I'm Flexible
Flexibility is at the heart of a
new, improved browsing and booking experience that we are
introducing today with three new ways to search on Airbnb -
Flexible Dates, Flexible Matching and Flexible Destinations.
Flexible Dates, which we started rolling out in February, makes
it easy to find the best places to stay if you are flexible on when
you go. Rather than searching with fixed dates, you can search for
a weekend getaway, a week-long vacation or even a month-long stay.
Since launching the tool we have already seen over 100 million
searches using it.
Flexible Matching offers a wider selection of listing results
when you search for a place to stay by surfacing homes just outside
of your search parameters. This way, you never miss out on a great
stay that falls just outside what was specified in a search—for
example, if you were searching for a beachfront home and set the
max price per night at $250, we would
still show options priced just above this.
Flexible Destinations is a new way to plan trips when finding a
unique place to stay is more important to you than traveling to a
specific destination. It helps you discover incredible properties
in places you might not have thought to search for and adapts to
your location. For instance, it surfaces ryokans in Japan, trullos in Italy, or castles in Spain. From adobe houses to wagons, Airbnb has
over 170,000 one-of-a-kind properties to choose from and the number
of searches for these unique listings has grown 94 percent so far
in 2021 compared to the same period in 2019.
We are also significantly improving our search capabilities to
help people find their ideal place to stay. New filters will adapt
to the season or location and allow people to search for homes near
points of interest, such as national parks, or with very specific
attributes such as whether the property has an ocean view or
whether a fireplace is gas or wood-burning.
Making it Easier to Host
Today, we are making
it even easier to become a Host with a brand new onboarding process
that has been simplified from dozens of steps to just 10, supported
by the latest technologies. Computer vision deep-learning models
automatically arrange photos based on their guest appeal, while
smart text suggestions help Hosts craft the best title and
description for their listing. In the U.S., an integration with
publicly available real estate data auto-fills details such as the
number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Help is just a click away
throughout the process. Streamlining and simplifying the process
will help anyone who wants to host and take advantage of the coming
travel surge onboard quickly to get their first booking. In fact,
for new listings that were activated and booked in Q1 2021, 50
percent received a reservation request within four days of
activation.
World-Class Service
We are also improving our
community support by doubling the number of support agents this
summer and expanding our support coverage from 11 to 42 languages.
A completely redesigned Help Center will be easier to navigate by
offering more personalized support to Hosts and guests.
Improvements Across the Entire Airbnb
Experience
Of the 100+ upgrades being showcased today,
other highlights include:
Guests
- Faster checkout process - We've reduced the number of
steps for new guests to confirm their first reservation.
- Arrival guide - Easy access to all the helpful
information a guest needs (directions, door codes, Wifi and message
the Host option) before check-in.
- Updated reviews - Guests now have a fuller spectrum,
from critiques to compliments, to rate their stay.
- Clearer Cancellations - Refreshed cancellation policies
increase clarity for both guests and Hosts.
Hosts
- All-new Today tab - A new centralized home base to make
it easier for Hosts to manage bookings and daily tasks. Here they
will see new booking requests, upcoming reservations as well as
details of current guests and quick links to the most used Host
tools.
- New welcome to hosting page - A redesigned hub for new
Hosts with helpful articles and testimonials as well as an improved
tool to estimate potential earnings from hosting based on nightly
rates and occupancy in their immediate area.
- Inbox improvements - Messages now load up to 10 times
faster and new features include Personalized Quick Replies which
let Hosts reply with one tap to guests' often-asked questions, and
Scheduled Messages which automates sending reminders, like checkout
instructions.
- Dedicated Superhost support - A dedicated support team
for Superhosts and Host Community Leaders giving our most
experienced Hosts priority access to our most experienced support
agents.
For a full list of all 100+ upgrades, please visit
www.airbnb.com/2021
The Blurring of Traveling and Living
Many of these
upgrades were inspired by a comprehensive analysis of Airbnb
booking data and consumer research which reveals the extent to
which the pandemic has fundamentally changed travel. With 4 million
Hosts across more than 220 countries and regions and more than 900
million guest arrivals, Airbnb is in a unique position to see how
travel is changing. Our analysis reveals three key trends:
- In part due to remote work trends, people are less tethered and
more flexible on when they can travel. Since the start of this
year, we have seen more than 200 million date-flexible searches,
100 million of which used our new Flexible Dates tool.
- Travel is being distributed to a much wider range of
destinations. In the 12 months ending April
30 2021, we had bookings in 94,000 cities.
- People are staying longer on trips. The share of stays 28 days
or longer on Airbnb has increased from 14% of nights booked in 2019
to 24% in Q1 2021. In New York
City, 62% of our summer 2021 nights are now for long-term
stays.
The Airbnb Report on Travel & Living can be downloaded
here.
Airbnb was born in 2007 when two Hosts welcomed three guests to
their San Francisco home, and has
since grown to 4 million Hosts who have welcomed more than 900
million guest arrivals in almost every country across the globe.
Every day, Hosts offer one-of-a-kind stays and unique Experiences
that make it possible for guests to experience the world in a more
authentic, connected way.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains
forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor"
provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
about us and our industry that involve substantial risks and
uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical
facts contained in this press release, including, but not limited
to, statements regarding the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on
us, travel trends, and the travel industry; the future of travel;
the behavior of Hosts and guests; and our future performance,
prospects, plans and objectives are forward-looking statements. In
some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because
they contain words such as "may," "will," "plan," "could,"
"potential," "objective," or "continues" or the negative of these
words or other similar terms or expressions that concern our
expectations. Although we believe that we have a reasonable basis
for each forward-looking statement contained in this press release,
we cannot guarantee that the future results, levels of activity, or
events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking
statements will be achieved or occur at all.
Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of known and
unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors that
may cause actual results to differ materially from the results
expressed or implied in this travel report. Therefore, you should
not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future
events. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements
include, but are not limited to, the effects and duration of the
COVID-19 pandemic on us, the travel industry, travel trends, and
the global economy generally; any further and continued decline or
disruption in the travel and hospitality industries or economic
downturn; changes in political, business, and economic conditions;
and the other risks listed or described from time to time in
Airbnb's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the
"SEC"), including Airbnb's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
fiscal year ended December 31, 2020,
Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2021 and subsequent Form 10-Qs and Form
8-Ks, which will be on file with the SEC and available on the
investor relations page of Airbnb's website.
All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this
press release and are based on information and estimates available
to us as of the date of this press release. We expressly disclaim
any obligation to update or revise any information contained in
this press release, except as required by law.
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SOURCE Airbnb, Inc.