Airbnb Winter Release Updates ❄️

Airbnb is always revamping their platform and adding things to make both the host & guest experience better, this week they dropped their winter release updates and I’m here to break them down for you!

Winter Release Updates:

• Guest Favorites

• Updated Ratings & Reviews

• Co-Host Messaging

• Smart Lock Integration - Not released yet

Guest Favorites:

This is one of my favorite updates, Airbnb compiled 2 million of the “most loved” properties on Airbnb and gave them a “Guest Favorites” tag, similar to the “Super host” tag.

• Ratings & Reviews - I’ve said it before and i’ll say it again… reviews will make or break your listing! All “Guest Favorite” listings have great reviews, and rated 4.9 stars or above. They also have high ratings for check-in, cleanliness, accuracy, communication, value, and location. Guest are able to rate each of those during the review process!

• Reliability - “Guest Favorite” listings have a strong record of reliability, they track this by your host cancelation percent. They also keep in mind your customer service rating, and aim for below 1%.

• How to Find “Guest Favorite” Properties - You can tell if a listing is a “Guest Favorite” by the badge on the listing! You can also filter for “Guest Favorite” properties only in your search!

Updated Ratings & Reviews:

Airbnb added three new features to make reviews easier to read and more detailed to help other guest plan their trip!

• Review Sorting - You can now sort reviews by recency & rating, making the results more relevant to what the guest want to see.

• Rating Distribution - Reviews can now be organized by 1 star, 2 star, 5 star and so forth! Making it easy to read both the positive & negative reviews.

• Additional Review Details - Reviews can now include where the guest is from, how long their stay was, if they traveled solo, with family, pets, kids etc!

Updated Co-Host Messaging:

This is a HUGE one for both host and co-host!

• Co-host & Host Communication - You can now directly communicate with your co-host on the Airbnb platform itself. This makes coordinating upcoming reservations easier than ever and keeping all communications through the platform.

• Co-Host Payout Options - There is now 2 more payout options for co-host.

  1. Split the cleaning fee

  2. Split the cleaning fee + a percent of the booking amount

Smart Lock Integration:

I think I am most excited about this update, although it has not began rolling out yet it will be available later this year apparently!

Integration With Airbnb - You can now connect your smart lock, Schlage, August and Yale to your Airbnb account and it will automatically create unique codes for each reservation. Guest will be able to view this code on the app before they arrive.

So many exciting updates happening now and in the near future, which update are you looking forward to the most?

See ya Monday!

Hailie