If you’re an Airbnb owner or operator, you probably have enough going on where you don’t want to worry about Airbnb’s latest updates. But, you can’t ignore the latest news, and you may be wondering what’s going on with the latest Airbnb 2022 Summer Release.
We’re here to summarize everything mentioned in Airbnb’s latest release and give you everything a host should know. The latest release includes the new search function, Categories, Split Stays, and more. Read on for a quick summary of what’s new with Airbnb’s latest release.
In the latest 2022 Summer Release, Airbnb announced a new way to search for listings within the app, and it revolves around Airbnb Categories. Categories are a way for guests to browse listings based on curated collections like great views, unique interiors, proximity to activities, and location.
While another update may sound annoying, this feature is pretty cool. It allows you to showcase the unique perks that your home offers to guests.
This new feature won’t change results for guests searching by destination. Results will show up in a category called ‘All Homes’, and from there it will feature additional categories. This helps any Airbnb owner whose listing has unique features that they want to showcase.
The change is also supposed to help properties that wouldn’t normally get high visibility because they’re outside of a popular destination. They can now be found through these other categories. A traveler who was committed to one city may now find a place they like more outside that city through categories.
It’s thought that categories will open up new possibilities for Airbnb owners by highlighting properties’ unique characteristics. Now, you may be wondering, “How will Airbnb decide which categories my property will be placed in?”. Good question.
All Airbnb homes will be curated and evaluated through machine learning technology. This advanced tech will analyze things like listing titles, descriptions, photo captions, reviews, and other data from hosts.
Airbnb claims that this is just the beginning and that even more categories and listing filters will be added in the future.
You probably want to know what you can do to impact your rankings in this new categorization method on Airbnb. The company claims that listings will continue to be ranked on the same factors:
You’ll want to make sure your property is up to date in all of these ways.
Airbnb claims including photos that represent a category will help your listing. Inspirational photos will rank higher, too. So, they recommend adding the best photos possible for your listing.
Include unique features of your home anywhere you can in your listing. Update your listing title, description, and other data.
You essentially want to signal all the unique aspects of your home to Airbnb’s machine learning technology in every way you can. The stronger signal they get from your listing that you belong in a category, the better your listing will rank in a given category.
Another new feature in the release is Split Stays. This feature lets your listing show up when a traveler searches for homes for a given date range - even if your home isn’t available for the entire duration.
This feature will allow a traveler to split their stay between two homes. This could lead to a higher number of bookings for your listing. Previously, your home may not have been discovered because it wasn’t available on the first leg of the guest's trip. Now, Airbnb will highlight your home and recommend splitting their stay between yours and another property.
Split Stays will work by pairing properties that match based on their location, type, and amenities from a guest’s search criteria. So, if a guest searches for wi-fi, wheelchair accessibility for 6 people in downtown Miami - two properties will be paired who have all of these parameters.
When using Split Stays on the map function, the properties will be highlighted on the map showcasing the distance between the two homes.
This seems like good news that could lead to a higher percentage of bookings.
There’s ways to optimize your listing to make sure your property is included in Split Stays searches. Here’s what you can do:
These changes will help your home get shown more for Split Stay searches. Learn more here.
The last feature of the summer release is AirCover. AirCover offers protection for guests and hosts to ensure that in the event that something goes wrong, both parties will work to find a solution.
For guests, this means they know the host will be there to find a solution to the problem. And, if you, the host, can’t solve the problem, Airbnb will step in and help out.
Essentially, all parties can feel confident that no matter what happens, a solution will be found and everything will be ok.
AirCover isn’t a new concept - it was released in November 2021. But now, Airbnb is expanding coverage for AirCover to provide $1 million in host damage protection and $1 million in host liability insurance.
Here’s the protections that AirCover will provide:
Get all the new details on the AirCover update here.
There’s a lot to unpack from the latest release, but Airbnb is rolling out these features to help hosts. So, hopefully these updates will lead to better performance for your listings on the app. As a recap, here are the 3 updates to the summer release:
Read more about the Airbnb 2022 Summer Release here.
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