Airbnb launches over 100 updates, including flexible booking

Airbnb Co-founder, CEO and Head of Community, Brian Chesky announced a lot of changes and new features with the goal of making it easier to become a host. Picture: Brian Chesky/Instagram.

Airbnb Co-founder, CEO and Head of Community, Brian Chesky announced a lot of changes and new features with the goal of making it easier to become a host. Picture: Brian Chesky/Instagram.

Published May 31, 2021

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Airbnb has launched over 100 updates to its websites, app and policies.

The company has announced a lot of changes and new features with the goal of making it easier to become a host, and to give potential guests more flexibility.

In a statement, Airbnb's co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky said: "We are seeing three fundamental shifts in travel as people become less tethered and more flexible.

"People can travel anytime, they are travelling 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."

As well as the host onboarding process being simplified to just 10 steps, computer vision deep learning models will "automatically arrange photos based on their guest appeal", while smart text suggestions will help hosts with listing titles and descriptions.

The new browsing and booking experiences gives users three ways to research, with Flexible Dates giving people the option to search for things like weekend trips of month-long stays.

Flexible Matching provides a wider range of results which properties just outside search parameters for those who could be tempted by a slightly more expensive booking with a nicer view.

And finally, Flexible Destinations lets users plan trips without a specific location in mind.

Search filters and reviews have also been updated, while there is a faster checkout process for new guests.

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