Traveler recommendations, a redesigned ratings and reviews section, a new listings tab, and a host enhancement package are the winter updates announced by Airbnb, which will begin rolling out worldwide this week.
A company statement explains that traveler recommendations represent a collection of 2 million accommodations featured on Airbnb for their ratings, reviews and reliability, and whose information is based on a vast history of data that includes more than 500 million bookings.
It explains that the "traveler recommendation" listings have very positive reviews and an average rating of over 4.9 stars. Furthermore, they also have good scores in subcategories such as arrival, cleanliness, listing accuracy, communication with hosts, location, and quality.
"Exceptional reliability" is added; these are accommodations that inspire confidence because they have an average of 1% in host cancellations and quality incidents in which the Customer Service team has intervened.
Furthermore, according to the press release, these listings are "easy to discover on Airbnb," available worldwide, and prominently featured on the platform for instant recognition. "These accommodations have a new badge that appears in search results and on the listing itself, and can also be used as a filter.".
“People often say that arriving at a place to stay is the moment of truth—that’s when you find out if it lives up to your expectations. Often, it doesn’t. So today we’re bringing you some new features to change that: Traveler Recommendations, a redesigned review section, and the Listings tab. Now you’ll know exactly what to expect every time you book,” explained Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb.
Airbnb states that listings with more details can receive up to 20% more bookings. However, it acknowledges that many listings are missing important information for travelers because hosts have found it too difficult to add it, explains the platform, which has created the "Listings" tab, including several new tools to easily manage and display all the information about each property.
It includes a listing editor, an AI-powered photo tour, and smart lock integration. "Hosts can connect their smart locks to their Airbnb account and automatically generate a unique access code for each booking. Guests receive the code through the Airbnb app just before they arrive—and that's it!".
The integration of smart locks will begin to be implemented in the United States and Canada later this year.
In the case of the photo tour created with artificial intelligence, hosts can automatically create it, organizing their images by room so that guests can get an idea of the layout of the space.
These photo tours, the platform explains, are created using Airbnb's custom-built AI engine, tested on over 100 million photos. The engine analyzes the images and assigns them to 19 different room types in seconds. Hosts can also edit their photo tour at any time and add amenities to each room.
