New property categories, new accommodation levels, Airbnb Collections, and the Loyalty and Recognition programs for the host community, are the key elements of the company's new plan.
Ten years ago, Airbnb co-founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, inflated three air mattresses in their apartment in San Francisco, and began what has become a global traveling phenomenon.
Today, Airbnb is one of the largest accommodation platforms in the world with over 4.5 million places to stay in about 81,000 cities. Over the past 10 years, Airbnb hosts have earned more than 41 billion dollars and more than 300 million guests have checked-in on an Airbnb location.
In the following 10 years, and given the continuous success of the host community, Airbnb finally unveils today the plan for “Homes”, its main accommodation platform, that is designed so all types of travelers can enjoy the transformative benefits of traveling in a local, personal and authentic way.
The plan includes four new property categories: Vacation rentals, Unique accommodations, Boutique hotels, and Bed and Breakfast (in addition to the existing categories of whole accommodation, private room and shared room). There will be two new levels – Airbnb Plus, and Beyond by Airbnb; Airbnb Collections and investments in the community with the renewed ‘Superhost’ program, and with a new membership program dedicated to Airbnb guests that will be launched later this year.
Airbnb’s host community is broad and diverse, with more than 4.5 million accommodations to stay around the world. Over the years, the diversity in the types of properties on the platform has expanded considerably, from tree houses to boutique hotels. Currently, it is only possible to classify these into 3 types of properties: whole accommodation, private room and shared room. This makes it difficult for hosts to stand out, and guests may not always find what they are looking for.
As a solution for this situation, Airbnb will add 4 new property categories to its platform: Vacation rentals, Unique accommodations, Boutique hotels, and Bed and Breakfast.
This will provide more accommodation options for guests, and will also make clearer the types of accommodation available in each place, as well as helping the hosts to better highlight what is so unique about their properties, and refer the guests based on their preferences.
Airbnb was initially designed for solo travelers, but over the years, millions of people have found that the platform adapts to different types of trips. To meet the needs of such a diverse range of travelers, Airbnb is launching Collections: perfect homes for every occasion. Now, the Airbnb Collections for Families and for Work will be launched. The Collections for Social Gatherings, Weddings, Honeymoon, Group Tours, and Special Dinners will be launched later this year.
Moreover, Airbnb announced launching an airline. Brian Chesky said: “We’ve seriously considered a lot of things around aviation and we’ve spent a lot of time exploring different concepts. We definitely want to make sure, though, that we can get into the end-to-end trip business.”