and services. These new features will include Airbnb co-hosting, new guest services, relaunching the “experiences” and more.
“We’re going to have to do multiple new things,” the CEO Brian Chesky stated in the call.
The news about these new services came in this Q2 earning call after the drop in profit by 15% based on the low demand from U.S. travelers. As a result, the booking lead times had shortened and the stock fell by more than 16% in after-market trading.
Airbnb wants to position these new features as a way to grow the company’s revenues and become known as something other than an online platform for short-term vacation rentals.
The Airbnb co-hosting feature will be launched this fall and plans to connect homeowners who don’t have the time to manage their listing on the platform with people who have the time but don't have a rental space to offer.
In addition to this, Airbnb stated that the “experiences” feature will be relaunched next year. The “experience” was previously available for guests to book outings, tours, and other things to do near their rental, but had been paused last year because Airbnb wanted to focus only on their core offerings.
After this testing with the previous version, Airbnb stated that they learned about what worked and what didn’t, and will work on a more capable version to launch to its users.
An interesting feature is still in the idea phase because the rental company is thinking of implementing personal chefs, massages, or mid-stay cleaning services as part of “in-home experiences”. With these possible features, Airbnb hopes to attract customers to book an Airbnb rental space rather than a hotel room.
Brian Chesky told the investors that the rental platform would be all about long-term rentals and would focus mostly on guest services. “[Airbnb is] going to be about long-term stays, it’s going to be about guest services, host services, and many new offerings…..And you’ll begin to see that next year.”
We are excited to hear more about these exciting features and we are waiting to see the full services that will be released. Stay tuned for more news about Airbnb!
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