AIRBNB is introducing more than 100 upgrades to refine and improve every aspect of its service, from the platform’s website and app to community support and policies, inspired by the major shift in how people are traveling around the world.
The Airbnb 2021 Release adds features to give Malaysian guests even more flexibility when planning their travel and to make it simple for anyone in Malaysia to become a host.
Many of the 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.
“We are seeing three fundamental shifts in travel as people become less tethered and more flexible,” Airbnb’s co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky remarked.
Making it easier for guests
With flexibility at the heart of a new, improved browsing and booking experience, Airbnb is introducing three new ways to search on the platform:
Flexible Dates: Flexible Dates, which Airbnb started rolling out in February, makes it easy to find the best places to stay if guest is flexible on when he/she go. Rather than searching with fixed dates, guest can search for a weekend getaway, a week-long vacation or even a month-long stay. Since launching the tool, the platform has already seen over 100 million searches using it.
Flexible Matching: Flexible Matching offers a wider selection of listing results when guest search for a place to stay by surfacing homes just outside of their search parameters. This way, guest never miss out on a great stay that falls just outside what was specified in a search – for example, that family villa in Selangor that costs RM320 per night, rather than the RM300 max setting in their search.
Flexible Destinations: This 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 guest discover incredible properties in places they might not have thought to search for and adapts to their location.
“We are also significantly improving our search capabilities to help people find their ideal place to stay, from our extensive property database,” Airbnb said in a statement.
“New filters will adapt to the season or location and allow people to search for homes near points of interest, or homes with very specific attributes such as whether the property has an ocean view.”
Other additional upgrades for guests include:
- Faster checkout process: The number of steps has been reduced for new guests to confirm their first reservation.
- Arrival guide: Easy access to all the helpful information a guest needs (directions, door codes, Wifi, etc) 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.
Making it easier for hosts
Today, Airbnb is 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 suggest photo arrangement based on their guest appeal, while smart text suggestions help hosts craft the best title and description for their listing.
By streamlining and simplifying the process, it will help anyone who wants to host and take advantage of the coming travel surge onboard quickly to get their first booking.
According to Airbnb, for new listings that were activated and booked in 1Q 2021, 50% received a reservation request within four days of activation.
“In fact, over a third (34%) of local hosts in Malaysia actively reinvested their earnings from hosting to spruce up and improve their homes, as they look forward to hosting more domestic guests in the long term (nights booked before cancellation and alterations),” Airbnb pointed out.
Additional upgrades for hosts include:
- 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.
Furthermore, Airbnb is also improving its community support – to provide world class service – by doubling the number of support agents and expanding its support coverage from 11 to 42 languages. Airbnb believes that a completely redesigned help center will be easier to navigate by offering more personalized support to hosts and guests.
“People can travel anytime, they are traveling to more places and they are staying longer,” Chesky commented.
“Thus, we believe the lines between living, working and traveling are blurring and, with this major upgrade, we are making it easier for people to integrate travel into their lives and for new Hosts to add even more homes for guests to choose from.” – May 25, 2021
