Airbnb Revamps Platform Ahead of Busy Summer Travel Season

Airbnb has unveiled over 50 new features in a bid to ease tensions between guests and hosts ahead of what is expected to be a busy summer travel season, as demand surges following the work-from-home era and pent-up desire for travel. The changes address feedback gathered from millions of customer service tickets, tens of thousands of social media posts, and consultation sessions with hosts and guests. The updates are intended to improve price transparency, affordability, and checkout procedures. Airbnb called on its design department and 20 different teams to develop new pricing systems that should allow guests to view total costs, including all fees before taxes, across the app. Hosts will have access to competitive pricing tools and can compare their listings with others in the area. The Rooms category has been added as an effort to attract young travellers to the platform and features more than one million listings with an average rate of $67 per night. Airbnb is also exploring the possibility of using AI technology to augment customer service and better match hosts and guests.