Still, the app wasn’t designed for groups. A new update announced on May 1 fixes that. The update allows guests to share their Airbnb wishlists, opening up a more collaborative way to add homes, notes, and vote on listings. The messages tab gets a redesign so that everyone on the trip can message with the host in a group thread. Once a trip is booked, guests can send invites to others in their group with digital postcards from artists around the world, and those invites will have the full address, WiFi password, and check-in instructions.
Photo: Airbnb
“Airbnbs are just better when you’re traveling with other people,” Airbnb cofounder and CEO Brian Chesky said at the launch event in Los Angeles on May 1. But there were issues with choosing a home with a group and wishlists were hard to share. Guests would instead lean on screenshots of messages from the host and other “workarounds like a spreadsheet,” Chesky said as an image of a spreadsheet showed on the screen behind him. “You should never have to use a spreadsheet while traveling, but people do.”
Photo: Airbnb
These changes make it much easier for things like booking the perfect Airbnb for a bachelorette party, from Palm Springs to Tulum to Jackson Hole and more. Or maybe it’s a family-friendly Airbnb with a lazy river or bowling lanes.
To top it off, Airbnb’s dedication to design flows through in the group booking updates. Posters, which Chesky described as a design that “harkens back to the golden age of travel,” were designed by artists around the world to show local scenes.
Photo: Airbnb
Hosts will also benefit from Airbnb’s 2024 summer release. Based on host feedback, Airbnb instituted an expanded earnings dashboard with interactive performance charts and automated earnings reports. The Listings tab now allows for more control of photo tours, and hosts can now more easily switch between their host account and guest account. On the messaging side, AI-suggested quick replies are now available (which can come in handy when there are a bunch of guests messaging at once).
Interested in becoming an Airbnb host? Check out Matador’s guides before getting started:
Along with the change to group booking and host features, Airbnb announced an Icon category that features rare, limited experiences around the world. 