Airbnb Updates: Enhanced Host Protection & WiFi Verification

Airbnb Enhances Host Protections and Platform Features

Recently, Airbnb’s CEO, Brian Chesky, shared insights gleaned from the company’s data on Twitter. These findings indicate a shift in travel patterns, driven by increased work flexibility, enabling individuals to travel more frequently during the week and even reside in Airbnb accommodations for extended durations.

In response to these evolving user behaviors, Airbnb is launching a comprehensive suite of new features designed to enhance the platform experience.

Introducing AirCover: Comprehensive Host Protection

A significant challenge accompanying the resurgence of travel is ensuring sufficient accommodation supply to meet growing demand. Airbnb is committed to supporting its hosts and improving their experience to address this. To this end, the company is introducing AirCover, a new, top-to-bottom coverage program.

AirCover provides all hosts on the platform with complimentary coverage, offering up to $1 million in damage protection and $1 million in liability coverage. This includes protection against income loss, pet-related damages, and the costs associated with deep cleaning.

The coverage product features a 14-day claim filing window and promises expedited reimbursements for hosts, with an even faster process for Superhosts.

Airbnb’s existing Host Protection plan previously offered up to $1 million in damage and liability coverage, but contained limitations. For instance, damage caused by pets was not previously covered.

The inclusion of pet damage coverage is expected to be particularly beneficial for both hosts and guests. The increase in pet ownership during the pandemic has led to a desire among pet owners to travel with their companions, creating a potential imbalance between supply and demand.

This expanded coverage should help to rebalance that dynamic.

AirCover represents a substantial expansion beyond the original Host Protection plan, which focused solely on the structure of the property. AirCover extends coverage to most of the contents within the home, with certain exclusions such as fine art, currency, vehicles (including boats and jets), weapons, security cameras, and precious metals/jewelry. Despite these exclusions, it marks a significant improvement over the previous policy, which did not cover damage to furniture or theft of belongings.

A complete list of exclusions can be found here.

From a technical standpoint, Airbnb’s AirCover is primarily provided through a policy issued by Zurich Insurance plc. However, in certain regions where local regulations require it, coverage may be provided by a Zurich Insurance plc partner company.

New Features for Enhanced User Experience

Alongside AirCover, Airbnb is introducing a new Translation Engine. This engine supports translation in over 60 languages, automatically translating listing descriptions and reviews into the user’s preferred language, eliminating the need for “click to translate” buttons.

Two additional features, Accessibility Review and Verified Wifi, are focused on improving accuracy. Listings frequently claim to meet accessibility standards or offer high-speed Wi-Fi, but often fall short of expectations.

Accessibility Review involves hosts submitting photos of their accessibility features, which are then manually reviewed by a dedicated team. To date, this team has verified the accuracy of 100,000 accessibility features across 25,000 properties globally.

Verified Wifi allows hosts to test their listing’s internet connection directly through Airbnb and have the speeds officially verified, providing guests who intend to work remotely with reliable connectivity.

Expanding Popular Features

Airbnb is also reinforcing products that have already proven popular. “I’m Flexible,” launched in February 2021, has been utilized over 500 million times.

This feature enables guests to be flexible regarding their destination, travel dates, and accommodation type.

Due to the popularity of flexible search, Airbnb is extending the search timeframe to between six and twelve months in advance. Furthermore, the company has added four new categories of unique stays: off the grid, ski-in/ski-out, luxe, and offbeat homes.

The “My Trips” tab has been redesigned to consolidate all essential information in one location, including a reservation countdown timer, check-in details, a list of upcoming bookings, and personalized Experience recommendations.

An interview with Brian Chesky is scheduled to discuss these updates and his broader vision for the company, based on observed trends in the travel sector. A link to the interview will be provided as an update to this article.