Airbnb’s Redesign and its push in giving users the opportunity to Airbnb more than just a holiday or escape, has been out for a few weeks now. The idea is that you want to airbnb more than just a lovely cottage on a beach – also turn to the service, for example when you want to experience a city that is close to home or add some adventure to your trip abroad.
We have already broken down the additions, including the launch of experiences and services, as well as the new look for the app. It all feels very slimmer with visuals that are adjusted on the go, a mini -social network and a kind of passport that stores all the information from your journey. So if you have a favorite place you can easily share it with a friend. It all feels very material.
Here we look under the hood and find out how Airbnb makes the app work better for you. The company has rebuilt its entire tech stack for the app and service as a whole, which means you find easier navigation with three choices at the top: home, experiences and services.
There is also a redesigned profile that makes it easier for you to look back and even connect again with people you have had experiences with. The reconstruction effort enables what has already been launched, while also setting up Airbnb for the future, a note that JUD Coplan, VP for Product Marketing at Airbnb, shared with Techradar.
“One of the enormous benefits of rebuilding architecture and reconsidering, really, the infrastructure of the app was that we created something that can expand beyond the 10 categories of services.” Coplan told me.
He referred to the 10 currently found – chefs, photographers, massage, spa treatments, personal training, hair treatments, makeup, nails, prepared meals and catering – but suggested that the expansion is very possible, adding: “We have created a new Airbnb that can even go beyond what we have talked about today.”
It may mean that we see the delivery of grocery goods so you can be well in stock when you arrive at your Airbnb to make dinner, or maybe it even means you can order directly to your home.
It really is an extension of the platform to book these services, whether in your hometown or on a trip. Coplan told me how his family had booked an experience in their hometown of San Francisco, a kind of residence excursion.
The 10 above settings are ahead with activity, such as cooking, city walks, learning a new skill and even more exclusive that contains celebrities.
During the keynote speaker, Airbnb’s CEO, Brian Chesky, highlighted the importance of people and noticed that it is real people who are experts who offer these experiences and services, and it is real people who offer their homes, lofts or apartments for Airbnb.
There is an element of AI used here, an example is an AI-driven photo trip, as coplan explained. “For home, if you upload all your photos, we recognize them, we organize them, we present them really nicely,” all for the purpose of making the listing easier and theoretically helping to encourage more bookings. There are also quick answers driven by AI, where the app for a host will automatically suggest a response that can be sent.
For services and experiences, the two new offers from Airbnb AI use to recommend what you might find most appealing. It bases this out of “where they are on their journey, their previous bookings, their current trip, what they have told us about in their profile,” coplan explained.
At the end of AI, coplan also shared that Airbnb began rolling an AI assistant to customer service in the United States in English, “that allows people to do, to have a natural language interview with customer service and get answers to questions really easy.” It will be interesting to see how this works and what feedback users give.
On the app’s new look and flow, it was clear that coplan and team at Airbnb focused on the human element, stressing that what you can book is all tied back to a real person. He noted that the color palette, animations and dimensionality all bind back to the real world, giving a sense of what you might be experiencing.
Even more interesting and perhaps hint of Airbnb’s future is the community aspect. “We didn’t want this to be a place where you have supporters where you meet people online,” Copplan explained. “The people you see are people that you know from the real world, and therefore the connecting site within your profile is, it’s people you’ve traveled with and it’s people you’ve met with your experiences.”
It is definitely a unique approach and a more intentional, rooted in a shared experience. Now it is completely opt-in and there is privacy control that allows you to turn off this community aspect.
Separated from society, but also the house within the profile, is a kind of pass -like experience that allows you to look back on where you have been and easily share details. Like a card in the Apple Wallet, it has a shiny and shine effect when you move your phone around.
While Airbnb’s main event is its annual summer release, and this is done by 2025, I suspect we will hear more from it before a year from now, and I am fascinated by seeing how far the tech stack can go. For now, I’m in search of an experience to try.
