BY BAMIDELE FAMOOFO
Airbnb, the online vacation rental company, has returned to winning ways after the huge downward spiral in revenue due to the impact of the pandemic on the global hospitality industry.
The highly innovative company posted quarterly revenue of $1.5 billion for the first quarter of 2022, which amounts to a 70 percent increase in its earnings for the same period last year.
Seeking to better its first-quarter performance and targeting the summer when vacation peaks, Airbnb, has introduced a new way to search designed around Airbnb Categories.
The innovation features a new way to search designed around Airbnb Categories; a new way to search that makes it easy to discover millions of homes you never knew existed, the innovative Split Stays feature which provides more options for longer stays by splitting your trip between two homes, and AirCover for guests; comprising the most comprehensive protection in travel, included for free with every stay.
Commenting about this innovation, Brian Chesky, CEO and Co-Founder of Airbnb said: “The way people travel has changed forever. That’s why we’re introducing the biggest change to Airbnb in a decade. First, people are more flexible about where they live and work, so we’ve designed a new way to search with Airbnb Categories. Second, people are taking longer trips, so we created Split Stays to give you more options by splitting your trip between two homes. And third, we’re introducing AirCover for guests, giving you the confidence to book knowing that Airbnb’s got your back.”
Explaining the reasons for the innovation, Airbnb said: “Millions of people are now more flexible about where they live and work. But travel search has been the same for 25 years — you enter a location and dates into a search box. 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 we’re introducing a new way to search designed around Airbnb Categories, making it easy to discover millions of unique homes you never knew existed. 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.
“To create Airbnb Categories, we evaluate millions of homes using machine learning to analyze titles, written descriptions, photo captions, structured data from Hosts, and reviews from guests. Members of Airbnb’s curation team review listings and hand-pick featured photos — so if a listing is in the Amazing Pools Category, the first photo shows a pool. Then, each category goes through a final check to help ensure consistency and photo quality.”
This launch represents the biggest change to Airbnb in a decade.
