Natalie Lung | (TNS) Bloomberg News
Airbnb Inc. launched a new section of its app and website where homeowners can hire fellow hosts to manage their rentals, underscoring a broader push to increase listings and attract more people to the platform.
The idea is that hosts who may not have the time or inclination to be hands-on can pay preapproved “co-hosts” on the platform to help set up or furnish their listings, or manage their bookings and guests. Airbnb has already received applications from would-be co-hosts, whom the company vets based on criteria indicating a strong track record, such as the number of stays they’ve hosted, ratings from guests and low cancellation rates.
A co-host can offer as many as 10 different types of services, with different compensation options that include, say, charging a one-time fee for setting up a listing page, or a percentage of a booking for day-to-day support. The new “co-host network” is launching in 10 countries including the U.S., Canada, UK, France, Spain and Brazil, the company said on Wednesday. It already has 10,000 co-hosts to start, with an average rating of 4.86 out of 5.
Investors are eager for details about new platform features that Airbnb has said will introduce new opportunities for revenue growth, which has slowed following an initial post-pandemic travel boom. On that metric, analysts estimate moderate, single-digit gains in the third quarter, according to Bloomberg-compiled estimates.
Airbnb does not take a commission when it connects hosts, the company said.
“It’s this nice positive flywheel that benefits Airbnb overall, so there’s no need to take an additional cut,” Chief Business Officer Dave Stephenson said in an interview ahead of the release. “What we’ll do is benefit by having more people stay in Airbnb because they’re going to all have more better stays.”
Shares of Airbnb closed at $135.15, up 1.4%, after earlier in the session jumping as much as 3.1%.
As part of its product launch on Wednesday, Airbnb also showed off listing highlights that change depending on what a traveler is searching for. The firm similarly unveiled new personalized search filters for guests inspired by their past stays to make it easier to find properties with their preferred amenities. It also simplified the checkout page for guests, and added more local payment methods in various countries, with a goal to nearly double the number of options to almost 40 by spring 2025. The benefits of these smaller changes will be “additive and accretive over time,” Stephenson said.
Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky previously told investors that the company will next year re-start its Experiences business for tours, classes and workshops, with better marketing and more affordable prices. The firm has also been investing more into less mature markets overseas, including the introduction of limited-edition stays inspired by local cultural icons. Additionally, Stephenson has teased new guest-related services for next year, such as personal chefs, midweek cleaning and in-home massages.
But it will take time for Airbnb to see a return on these investments. The company has said it expects marketing expenses to grow faster than revenue in the third quarter as it expands into new regions and adds services beyond its core offering of home rentals, all of which will likely weigh on margins in the near term.
These new initiatives “might not be the answer to reinvigorate the core top line” as novel features “will take time to ramp up,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh wrote in an Aug. 9 note.
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