Holiday rental company Airbnb recently announced an addition to its existing rental offerings - Airbnb Rooms - along with 50 more features and upgrades to its online services. Airbnb Rooms offers guests more affordable ways to experience a destination by staying with locals.
Airbnb is based in San Francisco, USA and operates an online marketplace for short- and long-term rentals. The company acts as a broker and charges property owners a commission for each booking.
The company, founded in 2008 by Americans Brian Chesky, Nathan Blecharczyk and Joe Gebbia, was originally called AirBedandBreakfast.com. After moving to San Francisco in 2007, roommates and former schoolfriends Chesky and Gebbia came up with the idea of putting an air mattress in their living room and turning their flat into a bed and breakfast venue. The following year, Chesky's former roommate, Blecharczyk, joined as chief technology officer and the third co-founder of the new venture.
The company is credited with revolutionising the tourism industry. However, it has also been the subject of criticism by residents of tourism hotspot cities – including those in South Africa - for enabling an unaffordable increase in home rents and for lack of regulation.
Rental market
There are now many complexes in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, as well as other major centres, with a constant daily or weekly turnover of Airbnb visitors. Agents say that, in many instances, apartments and townhouses are never occupied by their owners but have been specifically acquired and equipped as Airbnb units.
Airbnb has gained so much ground in South Africa, and participating property owners are earning so much money from the concept that many sectional title complexes and estates have given up trying to prevent owners from letting their homes and apartments on this platform.
Instead of trying to prevent the influx of these short-term tenants, body corporates and homeowners’ associations are focusing on holding owners who let their units on Airbnb accountable for any security, maintenance and conduct issues that may arise.
Complexes with high volumes of Airbnb visitors are concentrating on enforcing the legal measures already in place concerning letting and upgrading their security systems. In Cape Town, for example, municipal bylaws prohibit the establishment of a B&B in any block of flats. They also specify that where a B&B is established in a primary or holiday residence, the proprietors must live on the property. In addition, they may not let more than three bedrooms to paying guests or have more than six paying guests at a time.
New product
Airbnb Rooms features a new way to search for private room stays with a dedicated Rooms Category. It also enables guests to learn more about a host via the Host Passport, and guests can narrow down their searches with additional filters and expanded privacy features.
According to the Airbnb announcement, private bedroom listings are some of Airbnb’s most popular types of stay for guests. The Private Room Category (now ‘Rooms’) was the third-most-booked category since Airbnb Categories were launched in 2022.
“With private bedroom stays in more than 60 000 cities and towns around the world, and paired with today’s updates, Airbnb Rooms is a unique way to see a city by staying with a local. In the first quarter of 2023, four out of five reviewed stays in a private room received the highest possible five-star rating.
“In 2022, nights stayed in private room listings grew by 40% compared with 2021, pointing to travellers seeking more affordable travel amid the rising cost of living. In fact, more than 47 000 cities had at least one private bedroom listing with an average price of under US$50 in 2022.”
Features
There are now 50 more features and upgrades aimed at improving Airbnb services based on user feedback.
These include:
- Redesigned wish lists with a new interface, one-tap saving, and an improved calendar showing wish-listed homes' availability. Guests can also add notes to any wish-listed listing. Since launching wish lists a decade ago, more than one billion have been created.
- Total price display, with the option to view the total price with fees - before taxes - across the entire app, including search results, price filters, maps, and listing pages. Since December 2022, when the feature was offered to guests as optional, more than eight million visitors turned the total price toggle on.
- Transparent check-out instructions mean guests can now view check-out instructions on the listing page before booking and receive a reminder before they leave home. During the review process, guests can tell Airbnb about any excessive requests. Listings with repeated low ratings due to unreasonable chores will be removed from Airbnb.
- Improved maps - Already used by more than 80% of guests, Airbnb has updated maps with faster performance, persistent pins when zooming and panning, and more results when searching.
- As part of the 50 upgrades, Airbnb will also launch 25 improvements for hosts, including new pricing tools to help them see the nightly price, including all fees. They will also be able to compare the average prices of similar listings booked nearby and easily add weekly and monthly discounts.
Rental agents say the industry has adapted to the fact that Airbnb is now an established part of the rental market. Many have taken the view that the service can provide additional opportunities for them.
“Many property owners prefer to leave the letting of their rental units in the hands of reliable agents, including units that are let through Airbnb. They also rely on rental agents to see that the rental runs smoothly and resolve any issues that may crop up during the rental period.”
Writer: Sarah-Jane Meyer
