Airbnb announced the biggest changes to the platform in the last 10 years, including Airbnb Categories and Split Stays. The global head of hosting for the home-sharing platform, Catherine Powell, joined Cheddar News to discuss the upgrades that expand searchability. “You open the app today and you will find 56 incredible categories, categories that are curated around themes like style. So style could be design, it could be tree houses, it could be A-frames or yurts," she noted. "Then we also have location. The location could be lakes, beaches, it could be the arctic. We have over 6000 homes in the arctic." Powell also addressed Airbnb's new remote work policy for its own employees.


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Airbnb Announces Biggest Redesign in a Decade With New Key Features

well let's switch gears can home rental company Airbnb announcing its biggest upgrade in a decade. That's right, that's right and these new features coming out just in time for summer travel for all of the apps, new offerings. Let's check in with the other news. Senior reporter Michelle Castella. Thanks kevin Kristen Airbnb is announcing some exciting new features on the heels of a better than expected earnings report. Last week the company surpassed pre pandemic booking levels with 100 2.1 million nights and experiences book in the first quarter alone and it's looking to make the booking experience even easier with some big updates. So joining us now is Katherine Powell, she's a global head of hosting at Airbnb. So Catherine as I understand it, there were 100 and 50 updates announced today. So let's break down some of the top ones. Can you explain how Airbnb categories works because we were just looking at it upstairs and we were all fascinated. Hi Michelle, nice to see you again. So yes, today is, we are announcing our biggest change to Airbnb in a decade. We have redesigned Search and there are two key changes that we've announced. One is Airbnb categories and the other is split stays. So let me talk to you about Airbnb categories. You open the app today and you will find 56 incredible categories, categories that are curated around themes like style. So style could be designed, it could be tree houses, it could be a frames or yeah hurts. Then we also have location, location, could be lakes, beaches, it could be the arctic. We have over 6000 homes in the arctic just incredible and then we also have categories around activities like skiing, surfing, camping and then we have split stays for those longer stays and we've seen I mean the growth in longer stays is incredible. Q. One you just talked about our earnings Q. One we've had an all time high in stays over a month, one in five nights booked and now more than a month and split stays will make it easier for those longer stays. But we will pair two homes for your trip duration which means that your choice, your choices are just much bigger because basically we will now give you more options for where to stay. Those are all so great especially as people look for longer term stays as they work remotely and we'll get more to that later. But what new features are offering more protections for your guests who are using your service at this time? Absolutely. I mean our guest bookings are also at an all time high and we want our guests to feel confident when they book last november we introduced air cover for hosts and that was increasing in expanding our coverage for hosts and now we're expanding the coverage for guests and basically this is for guests to feel confident when they book that what the book is what they're going to get. So let me give you an example if you booked to go to florida which is one of our trending destinations this summer. Cape San blas, if you booked to go to Cape San blas and say for example the air conditioning breaks in the height of summer, if the host can't fix it and we know that our hosts will try to fix it, they do everything to ensure that their guests have the best possible stay. Then Airbnb will step in and we will rebook you or if you don't want to be rebooked, we will refund you. I'm really glad you brought up that florida is a trending destination for summer because you know summer travel is just around the corner. So what other trends are you seeing for the season? So our nights are nights for the summer are 30% compared to pre covid. And domestic remains really strong. There's florida like I said, we have Maine is another trending destination and main main is actually, it was great. I was looking at in Maine as well and one of the advantages of split stays if you want to for example spend two weeks in the summer. In Maine I found a two week two week holiday where Airbnb basically split my stay between the coast and the mountains which is something I wouldn't have even thought of and suddenly there were destinations that I would never have found myself. So we have made big sur California is another destination domestically and then people are traveling internationally which is just wonderful to see our international travel is back to pre covid levels and we have destinations like bodrum in Turkey, Capri in Italy you Betta in spain so it's going to be a hot summer. Now I want to talk about a topic that's been in the headlines dealing with Airbnb and that's your expansive remote work policy. So I know that the company has adopted that policy. But do you have any insight into how customers are using Airbnb for remote work? Well we've seen long term stays trending. They started, I mean as soon as lockdown lifted and people were able to travel and I'm sure Michelle you were like all of us just desperate to travel as soon as you could. That is when people started staying longer on Airbnb s we were the perfect opportunity for people to go live in a home. They felt safe, they took their computers and they were able to work from home. And that trend has continued and it has continued to grow, which is why we've seen our long term stays at an all time high this quarter. And as people have been untethered and more flexible and they have been able to travel when they want to work when they want. We've seen our employees do the same and we've spent some time thinking about what is the white the right work from home policy. And as you said, we announced a couple of weeks ago, true flexibility for our employees. They have the choice, they can work from home, They can work in the office or they can travel and and work, they can work remotely internationally from 170 countries if they want up to 90 days at a time. And these trends of working remotely, as I said is something that we've seen with our guests as well at Airbnb. Have you seen productivity decline when people work remotely or anything like that? We, we IPO's remotely, we had 100 and 50 upgrades last year remotely, we have just introduced the biggest change in a decade to Airbnb remotely. So no, we've seen no decline in productivity, but what I would say is really important is to continue focusing on opportunities to connect in person. So while we've introduced this true flexibility and and some people will choose to go to the office, we're going to be very intentional about ensuring that we can have moments to connect in person and this may be to have strategic planning sessions, this maybe to have creative brainstorms or it may simply be to connect and to ensure that we continue to build our culture. I think we've all found that working remotely for two years, phrase the important culture of companies and teams. Now I think everyone is always concerned about the possibility of a covid resurgence. Are you guys concerned that it's going to disrupt travel again. But I think if the last two years has shown us anything, it's that you can't predict what's going to happen. I think we're all getting used to living with covid. We monitor very closely what experts say, what the CDC and the and who says we make sure to encourage our community to stay safe and our hosts to follow guidelines. But it's wonderful to see so much of the world vaccinated and consumer confidence returning. Now. Airbnb is so reliant on hosts to provide guests with housing and experiences. Are you looking to add more hosts to your service? We absolutely continue to to grow our host numbers. We've had six million listings at the end of Q one, we have four million incredible hosts across 220 countries. We've had guests visit over 100,000 cities and towns. So our hosts are everywhere. And in fact in the pandemic, we've had guests Book, sick, book in 6000 towns and cities that have had their first ever Airbnb booking, meaning that we've had hosts in 6000 towns and cities for the first time. So there's an opportunity for hosts to be in, in a city or town for the first time and this is really what we think categories and split stays are going to provide the opportunity for people to discover places for the first time and therefore for hosts to host for the first time Now, I know you just announced all these updates? but what's next for Airbnb? So where's where are you looking to expand next? Well, as you said, we've just we've just announced the biggest change to Airbnb in a decade, but we are a tech company in the travel industry and we will continue to innovate. And one of the areas that I think we will continue to focus on is the experience of the guests as they travel of experiential stays and and how we can make those more immersive. We're very excited about that area. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. That's Catherine Powell. She's the global head of hosting at Airbnb.