Airbnb hosting has become a complicated business, from setting up a listing and managing the property to understanding price dynamics, communicating with customers, and tracking earnings. The tricky part is that the more properties hosts manage, the harder it becomes for them to juggle everything. To solve this problem, Airbnb is introducing the Host Network feature, a place where hosts can find top-rated local co-hosts to help manage properties as part of its winter release.
The travel company is setting up a LinkedIn- or Fiverr-like “hosts for hire” network consisting of highly rated local hosts. Currently, Airbnb has onboarded hosts with a rating of at least 4.8 and a minimum of 10 hosted stays. This company has onboard 10,000 hosts onto the network in 10 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, UK, and the U.S.
These hosts can help with things like listing setup, setting prices and availability, booking request management, guest management, onsite guest support, and cleaning and maintenance. They can set up their own prices for offering these services. The host seeking these services can learn more about co-hosts, their skills related to co-hosting services, and their service rates on the profile page.
During Airbnb’s Summer 2023 product release, the company introduced features that allow hosts to add co-hosts to have them manage certain tasks. The release also had provisions to pay a percentage of booking to these co-hosts. The company is building a new network on those features.
“One of the requests that we had from hosts is that they would really love to be able to find professional, high-quality cohosts with a great track record in their area whom they can trust. And they can really be completely hands-off,” Judson Coplan, VP of Product Marketing at Airbnb, told TechCrunch.
Airbnb was touted as a passive income vehicle for the longest time. But with more travelers using different services, the expectations for bookings grew. As a result, hosts had to become professionals, and they also saw declining income from property booking. With this network rollout, Airbnb is giving hosts the opportunity to earn money when they are not managing their property.
The company said that hosts on the network currently help manage seven properties on average.
Besides introducing a host network, the company is rolling out a feature for hosts to see pricing for similar properties in the area, customizable templates for quick replies to guests, and an improved earnings dashboard.
The company is also releasing a slew of updates for guests such as a welcome tour in the app for first time guests, suggested destinations as well as filters in search, simpler checkout pages, and local payment options including Vipps in Norway, Mobile Pay in Denmark, and MoMo in Vietnam.
Besides these features, Judson also emphasized that the company is exploring using AI for community support when talking about the company’s AI strategy.
“When guests or hosts have questions about how to use the app, cancellations, policies, reservations, and bookings, I think AI can be a really valuable tool in getting answers quickly right in the app,” he said.
The company is already experimenting with using AI to summarize reviews and possibly build an “ultimate concierge” for customers.
