Last year, Airbnb released 150 upgrades to its service. Today, the company is launching three changes including Airbnb Categories, Split Stays, and AirCover for guests.
Millions of people are now more flexible about where they live and work. Most of us can only think of a few dozen cities to type into the search box, but there are Airbnbs in 100,000 towns and cities around the world. That’s why the company is introducing a new way to search designed around Airbnb Categories.
When you open Airbnb, you’re presented with 56 categories that organize homes based on their style, location, or proximity to a travel activity. When you search for a destination, your search results are also organized by categories that are relevant to that destination. As you view different categories, the map intelligently zooms in to show you where the homes are located.
In the last three months, nearly half of the nights booked on Airbnb were for trips of a week or more. Split Stays is an innovative feature that splits your trip between two homes. When searching for a specific destination, Split Stays automatically appear in your search results. They also appear within 14 categories — including Camping, National Parks, Skiing, and Surfing — to inspire you to stay in two destinations as part of a longer trip. For example, when browsing the National Parks Category, Split Stays might suggest a pair of homes near Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon.
When viewing Split Stays on a map, an animated line visually connects the two homes to show you the distance between them and the sequence of the stays. Once you select a Split Stay, you’re guided through an easy-to-use interface to book each stay, one home at a time.
Lastly is the AirCover, which is included and also free. With AirCover, you’re covered by four protections every time you stay on Airbnb:
Per the company:
Booking Protection Guarantee – if a host needs to cancel your booking within 30 days of check-in, the company will find you a similar or better home, or they will refund you.
Check-In Guarantee – If you can’t check into your home and the Host cannot resolve the issue, they will find you a similar or better home for the length of your original stay, or will refund you.
Get-What-You-Booked Guarantee – If at any time during your stay you find your listing isn’t as advertised — for example, the refrigerator stops working and your Host can’t easily fix it, or there are fewer bedrooms than listed — you’ll have three days to report it and Airbnb find you a similar or better home or will refund you.
24-hour Safety Line that covers 16 languages to help you resolve issues with an agent from Airbnb.
