Airbnb introduces Icons – extraordinary experiences from the world’s greatest icons

Plus new features that make planning group trips easier than ever

Introducing Icons 

A new category of extraordinary experiences hosted by the world’s greatest icons across music, film, television, art, sports, and more. 

• Over the past five years, we’ve launched more than 90 one-of-a-kind stays and experiences available only on Airbnb across movies, sport, gaming, food, music and more. In 2023 alone, we launched 35 of these stays which garnered over 4.7 million views. 

• Given this demand and excitement, we took our learnings from over the years to build a brand new category – Icons – with new experiences dropping throughout the year. 

• Among the top 5 one-of-a-kind stays and experiences Airbnb users have shown the most interest in to-date are:
  • Home Alone (Chicago, IL, United States) 
  • Barbie’s Malibu DreamHouse – Ken’s Way (Malibu, CA, United States) 
  • Shrek’s Swamp (Scotland, United Kingdom) 
  • Hocus Pocus (Danvers, MA, United States)
  • Mystery Machine (Malibu, CA, United States) 

New features for group trips

Planning group trips is easier than ever with shared wishlists, group messaging in a redesigned Messages tab, and digital trip invitation postcards. 

• In South Africa more than 75% of bookings on Airbnb are group trips which is why we’re introducing new features to help make planning trips with friends and family easier.

• Traveling can offer family and friends a way to have fun, connect with each other, and create cherished memories. National Parks, Beaches, Amazing Pools, Iconic Cities and Amazing Views are the top 5 categories booked by group travelers in South Africa. 

• Last year, December, April and September months were popular for group trips in South Africa and these were some of the popular destinations for groups in South Africa: Cape Town, Johannesburg, eThekwini, KwaDukuza and Tshwane. 

Shared Wishlists 

• Guests are constantly discovering, and saving, wonderful listings on Airbnb using wishlists. Since we launched the feature over a decade ago, guests in South Africa have created over 7 million  wishlists to help them plan their trips.

• Shared wishlists are a great and convenient place to start planning a group trip. However, guests often still share individual links with friends when trying to decide on the best home for their trip. In fact, over a million listing links were shared a day on average in the last year. Starting today, when we detect guests have shared three or more listing links, we’ll create a wishlist of those listings, which can be shared with co-travelers to help make organizing trips even easier. 

• While shared wishlists are a great tool for planning group trips, only 1% of group bookings have come from shared wishlists so we’re making it easier to create and collaborate with co-travellers. Now invited co-travellers can leave notes and vote on their favorite listings to make the decision process easier and bookings quicker.

• Every group has an unsung hero – the person who makes it their mission to ensure the group has the perfect space to enjoy their trip. On Airbnb in South Africa, women create 40% more shared wishlists than men.

Trip Invitations

• Less than 1 in 10 group trips have a co-traveler who joined a reservation, making it the primary booker’s job to answer many logistical questions from co-travelers and bear the sole responsibility of communicating with the Host. We want to help change that.

• Starting today, once a trip is booked, we’re making it easier and fun for the primary booker to invite co-travelers to the reservation with digital postcards illustrated by artists from around the world. These postcards invite co-travelers to join the trip, see important details like check-in and wifi details, and join a group chat with their Host.  

Messaging 

• Messaging is an important part of the Airbnb experience. Over 15 billion messages have been sent on Airbnb and in the last year alone, 3 billion messages were sent. As a result, we’re redesigning the inbox tool and making it easier to see and quickly engage with messages in our new Messages tab. 

• Now all guest, Host, and support messages are conveniently in one place with a unified search, chat members can use emoji reactions, and Hosts can use AI-suggested quick replies to efficiently respond to frequently asked questions about check-in, checkout, and more. 

Upgrades for Hosts

We’ve improved the earnings dashboard, updated the Listings tab to give Hosts more control, and added a simple way to quickly switch between the guest and Host sides of the app.

• In 2023, Hosts on Airbnb earned more than $57 billion USD and the earnings dashboard was visited over 7 million times by Hosts. Knowing how important earnings are to Hosts, we’re making the earnings dashboard even more interactive, with extra insights such as occupancy rates, nights booked, and average guests and nightly stays. And for the first time, Hosts can break down their earnings by listings.

• Since launching AI-powered photo tours in the Listings tab last fall, 20,000 listings on Airbnb in South Africa now feature a photo tour giving guests a better understanding of their Host’s home. Hosts know what parts of their homes make it attractive to guests so we’re giving them the opportunity to edit the order of photos in a Listing tab photo tour to highlight the best parts of their home.

• In the past year, 35% of Hosts in South Africa  also stayed in an Airbnb so we’re making it easier to get the best of both worlds and allowing them to easily switch between their Host and guest profiles.

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