Airbnb introduces more than 50 updates to improve customer experience

Airbnb has announced more than 50 updates — including new features and changes to existing features — that are designed to improve customer experience, the company announced in its summer press release on Wednesday. Worldwide rollout for the new features began on the same day.

"Millions of people have given us feedback on how to improve Airbnb. We've listened," said Brian Chesky, the company's CEO. "Today, we're introducing the most extensive set of updates ever."

One of the more highly-anticipated changes pertains to checkout instructions, which were not required to be advertised on listings prior to booking, frustrating some users who were given a set of tasks upon exit — on top of having to play cleaning fees for some units. Guests are now able to view any specific checkout instructions on the listing prior to booking a stay, and will receive a reminder before leaving, in addition to having new space in the review process to disclose "excessive requests." 

"Listings with repeated low ratings from unreasonable chores will be removed from Airbnb," the company said.

Airbnb is also introducing a new "total price display," which will give users a total price breakdown that includes pre-tax fees across listing pages and search results. The feature was rolled out for beta testing in November but is now available to all users.

With the new "months" tab, it will now be easier for users to book longer stays, and their fees will be reduced for stays three months or longer, while the new "rooms" tab makes it easier for users to book a stay in a spare room.  

Additionally, through a new partnership with Klarna, guests in the U.S. and Canada can also apply to pay for trips in four installments over a six week-span, while guests in the U.S. booking stays over $500 can also apply to pay monthly, with the company expecting to increase eligibility for other countries throughout the year.

Chesky also posted several of the changes in a Twitter thread, including a final tweet that summarizes all 53 of the updates the company is implementing to improve customer experience.

"None of this would have been possible without your feedback," Chesky wrote on Twitter, thanking users before asking, "What else can we improve about Airbnb? We will prioritize your top suggestions." 

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