Airbnb Recognizes Users Are Fed Up with Lengthy Chore Lists and Hidden Fees—Here’s the Proposed Solution

At a recent press conference in New York City, Brian Chesky, cofounder and CEO of Airbnb, opened by addressing actual tweets from dissatisfied customers voicing their frustrations about high cleaning fees, chores, hidden charges, and more.

"We’ve heard you," Chesky stated. "We’ve enhanced our service by adopting a design-focused strategy." This design-focused strategy commenced with a comprehensive analysis of Airbnb’s service blueprint, evaluating the entire experience for both guests and hosts, and reviewing millions of customer service inquiries alongside thousands of social media comments to refine the process.

With an anticipated 300 million guest arrivals in 2023, Airbnb understands the urgency to resolve significant concerns regarding its vacation rental platform before proceeding further. Chesky hinted at exciting new developments set for 2024 but recognized the flood of social media complaints that prompted him to conclude, "We need to get our house in order and rectify our fundamental service . . . [and] restore focus on the people using Airbnb."

The top complaint highlighted was the lack of clear pricing, followed closely by burdensome checkout tasks imposed by some hosts on guests. Consequently, Airbnb is rolling out 50 new features and enhancements for both guests and hosts.

Here are just a few of what Chesky referred to as "the most comprehensive set of enhancements we’ve ever implemented."

1. Price transparency is now integrated into the search process

Users can now activate or deactivate a new total price feature while searching. When it's off, they’ll see the search results as they did previously, showing only the nightly rate without including the cleaning fee and Airbnb service fee. When toggled on, the complete price, including all fees before taxes, will be displayed in the search results. (The tax-inclusive price will appear during checkout, similar to other online shopping experiences.)

2. Enhancements to the checkout process

“We recognized that the checkout experience could be quite cumbersome,” Chesky remarked, addressing the numerous complaints regarding difficult tasks like mowing lawns, 10-step cleaning lists, and $150 charges for condiments left in the fridge. To increase clarity, hosts can now specify their checkout expectations in their listings under House Rules, ensuring guests know what to anticipate before reserving. A day before checkout, guests will receive a reminder that includes a link to the checkout instructions.

If guests believe these requirements are excessive, they can now report "excessive checkout tasks" through the rating tool after their stay. Hosts who consistently receive low ratings for such tasks will face removal from the platform by Airbnb.

3. Two-minute response time from customer support while traveling

For travelers encountering issues during their trips, Airbnb aims to ensure that 90 percent of calls to its 24/7 support team are answered within two minutes. To access this support, navigate to the trips tab, click on help, and you can call or message Airbnb regarding urgent matters—such as difficulties accessing your listing—while you’re away.

4. Airbnb Rooms category

Airbnb began in 2007 when co-founders Chesky and Joe Gebbia hosted three guests in their San Francisco apartment. To return to the company's original vision of staying with hosts and immersing oneself in local experiences, Airbnb has launched a new curated category featuring private rooms in hosts' homes. This can be found on its homepage, alongside other categories introduced last year, such as Tiny Homes, Castles, and OMG!

“With Airbnb Rooms, we’re revisiting the core idea that sparked our journey,” Chesky stated. “People are once again at the heart of Airbnb.” Besides reconnecting after years of pandemic isolation, another advantage of Airbnb Rooms is their affordability, with the average nightly rate for a private room being only $67.

To demonstrate his commitment to refocusing the company on this fundamental concept, Chesky has once again listed a room in his San Francisco home on the platform, an act he first undertook last fall to showcase the simplicity and benefits of listing a private room.

5. Enhanced safety measures and the introduction of 'Host Passports'

To encourage more guests to stay in Airbnb Rooms, Chesky emphasized the importance of ensuring that guests feel comfortable with their hosts. Current safety protocols include verifying the identity of all guests and hosts through government-issued IDs and providing a 24/7 safety hotline. When creating listings, hosts will also be asked whether their private room door has a lock; if it doesn’t, this will be noted in the listing.

Alongside a host’s ratings, superhost status, and hosting history, the new Host Passport feature offers a detailed bio to help potential guests assess compatibility with their hosts. This includes basic details like their birth decade, pet ownership, and spoken languages, as well as fun facts like their favorite high school song and what title they would give their autobiography.

6. Focus on long-term stays

In response to a changing work environment where many people are no longer tied to traditional offices, Airbnb is shifting its focus from short-term rentals to accommodating stays of a month or longer. Chesky noted that currently, at least 20% of Airbnb’s business consists of bookings longer than a month. A new “months” tab allows users to search for listings available for stays ranging from one month up to a year. They can also opt to pay monthly in installments directly from a bank account, eliminating credit card processing fees. Additionally, in the fourth month of a stay, Airbnb will “significantly reduce” its guest service fees, though the exact reduction amount has not been specified.

7. Enhanced Wishlist features

Airbnb has completely revamped its Wishlist feature, which allows users to create curated lists of properties for future travel. The redesigned interface now displays larger images of saved homes, and users can add notes to each listing, highlighting key details to facilitate easier comparisons, as noted by Chesky.

8. Various enhancements for hosts

Hosts can now choose from a pre-selected list of reasonable checkout tasks within the app, simplifying the process of providing checkout instructions to guests. Additionally, to assist in setting competitive pricing, hosts can now view what guests are paying for similar nearby listings. This new feature also allows hosts to see the total nightly price including all fees, which previously was only visible once the listing went live.