Is Airbnb Really for Everyone?

Airbnb is a hospitality service platform that connects people around the world to incredible places to stay with an aim to create a community where all 7.5 billion people can belong anywhere. Currently, the company has over 4 million lodging listings in 65,000 cities and 191 countries and has facilitated over 260 million check-ins.

Brian Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb, claims that Airbnb community can accomplish the goal of having Airbnb for everyone by having the following 5 features:

First, there is the Superhost program. The Superhost program recognizes over 400,000 hosts who go above and beyond for every guest. To be eligible for the Superhost program, a host must achieve a 4.8+ overall rating, respond within 24 hours at least 90% of the time, actively host at least 10 stays a year, and honor every reservation unless there's an extenuating circumstance.

Superguest is a new feature coming later this summer, similar to its "Superhost" program. Superguest program offers extra perks to a small selection of the company's top users.

Superguest, coming soon

Let's build the world's best travel membership program together. Tell us: what perks would you want? pic.twitter.com/Bd6tOyPibo

— Airbnb (@Airbnb) February 22, 2018

Thirdly, Airbnb is introducing "New Categories & Collections" feature. Airbnb will better categorize rentals from 3 current categories of shared rooms, private rooms, and entire homes. Now, people will get to choose from another four categories: vacation homes, unique spaces (or unconventional homes like domes, igloos, and tree-houses), bed and breakfasts, and boutique homes. Airbnb plans to "add thousands of new categories" that may include options like wineries and ranches. Airbnb is also debuting new "Collections" Feature which separates the most popular reasons for traveling such as family vacation or work travel into 9 different collections. Each one of the collections would have 4.8+ ratings and special services.

Fourthly, Airbnb Plus tier for “beautiful homes from exceptional hosts,” which is a higher tier of Airbnb listings inspected in-person by Airbnb staff to make sure they met the company’s criteria. Plus will begin with 2,000 homes in 13 cities, according to a release from Airbnb. Plus homes are inspected for 100 total areas of interest including cleanliness, comfort, design, and fully-featured bathrooms and kitchens. Benefits include: Top Placement, In-Home Services, and Premium Support.

Last but not least, beyond by Airbnb: A feature coming soon.

Airbnb is trying to position itself as an alternative and more robust option in the hospitality industry. by building the credibility that it can offer unique experiences you won’t find in those hotel environments. All this comes back to the hosts, which now have an opportunity to try to craft those experiences and, in the end, pick up an additional revenue stream on the property they might already own.