Airbnb recently announced three new features at its winter conference: a "Guest Favorites" certification badge that makes it easier for users to find suitable accommodation experiences, a "new review system" that makes it easier for users to provide feedback on their accommodation experiences, and a "Listings Tab" that makes it easier for hosts to manage their listings.
For the "Travelers' Favorite" certification badge, Airbnb has carefully selected 5 million popular properties listed on the Airbnb service through over 200 million traveler reviews and data, with an average rating of 4.9 stars or above. Properties that perform well in terms of check-in convenience, cleanliness, description accuracy, communication with the host, as well as location and price can receive the "Travelers' Favorite" certification badge, thereby attracting more users to book their stay.
Airbnb said that to receive the "Travelers' Favorite" certification badge, the accommodation must be highly reliable in service, with hosts proactively canceling reservations, or have an average probability of quality issues below 1%, thereby ensuring that users can receive a decent stay experience.
The new review system updated this time allows users to increase the readability of review content by sorting by conditions, confirming positive and negative reviews, or opening review details. This allows users to more efficiently find housing that meets their needs through reviews, and confirm whether the housing they are looking for has any problems or whether it meets their personal needs in a more visual way.
As for the property labeling section, it allows landlords to display housing information in a simpler way, making it easier for landlords to add descriptions of property facilities, bed arrangements, etc., or add guidance on how to reach the property location. It can even use artificial intelligence to help landlords compile photos, thereby quickly creating a property photo tour.
Additionally, hosts can link their smart door locks to their Airbnb accounts. This automatically generates a unique code for each booking and shares it with the guest through Airbnb, allowing them to easily unlock the door upon check-in. This feature is expected to be available initially in the United States and Canada, with additional countries and regions to follow. It will also support smart door locks from brands including Schlage, August, and Yale.
Other updates include increased transparency and comparison of housing prices, a new income dashboard for hosts, the option to split payments with hosts, and message sharing, allowing hosts to more conveniently manage their listings or manage their listings with partners.
