Airbnb launches a network that lets hosts hire other hosts

Hosting on Airbnb has grown into a complex business from setting up and preparing your listing to understanding price dynamics, communicating with your customers, and tracking your earnings. The trickier part is that the more properties hosts are managing, the harder it becomes for them to juggle everything. To solve this problem, Airbnb is introducing a Co-Host Network feature as part of its winter release that lets hosts find top-rated local hosts who help them take care of their properties.

The tourism company will develop a network of "hosts for hire," comprising the best-qualified local hosts, with similar operations to LinkedIn and Fiverr. For the time being, Airbnb has onboarded only 4.8-star-plus-rated hosts who have hosted at least 10 stays. Onboarding 10,000 hosts in 10 countries inclusive are Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, UK, and the U.S.

For instance, the hosts could help with listing setup, setting prices and availability, request management for bookings, management of guests, on-site guest support, and cleaning and maintenance. You can set your own pricing for offering such services, and the hosts seeking those services can learn more about your cohosting skills in shared hosting services and your pricing on your profile page.

In its Summer 2023 product release, the company introduced features to enable hosts to add co-hosts and have them manage the show for the hosts. It had provisions for paying a percentage of the booking to the co-hosts. For such features, the company is building its new network. Airbnb was brought in as the longest passive income vehicle. However, as more travelers use other services, the expectations for booking went up, meaning forcing the hosts to be more professional, which cut down the revenues of property bookings. By using this development of the network in Airbnb, the owner may generate money if you do not manage your property.

It said network owners on average are currently supporting the management of seven properties. With the roll-out of a colocation network, it is introducing at the same time a feature to show hosts prices for comparable properties in the area, customizable templates so that one can respond quickly to guests and an improved revenue dashboard.

It has also begun to roll out a number of updates for guests: an in-app welcome tour for first-time guests, recommended destinations and search filters, a simpler checkout page, and even local payment options: Vipps in Norway, Mobile Pay in Denmark, and MoMo in Vietnam.  Besides the above features, Judson also emphasized that the company is looking to leverage AI in support of its community when talking about its AI strategy. "When guests or hosts have questions about using the app, cancellations, policies, bookings and orders, I think AI can be a very valuable tool to quickly get answers right in the app," he said It's already testing the use of AI to collate reviews and potentially provide an "ultimate concierge" for guests.