Airbnb wants to simplify finding the perfect rental with their new categories feature. Rolling out with the latest update, this feature will let users sort listings by types of homes. So, this’ll make it easier for you to find things like…the iconic Moulin Rouge windmill, and the Shark House.
“Airbnb Categories are collections of homes organized by what makes them unique.” This was said via a video introducing the newest upgrade to the platform,” Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky explains. “Airbnb Categories are collections of It already includes over 4 million homes spread all over the world. All these homes already exist on Airbnb, but until you go through the effort of categorizing millions and millions of homes, you just don’t know what you have.”
Currently, users can pick from 56 different categories that sort homes by style, location, or proximity to travel activity. The design category has collections of over 20,000 homes chosen by their architecture and interiors. This is in response to the fact that wishlists with ‘design’ in their title grew 175% in 2021 compared to 2019.
With allowing users to search this way, the company hopes to highlight locations and homes users otherwise wouldn’t have searched for.
This also allows users a more experience based rental with options like camping, or countryside. “If you really want to get out of town, there’s even the Arctic.” When asked about castles, “We have a lot of them,” he said.
But one of the coolest new additions is the OMG category. Which is populated with truly unique homes that don’t fit anywhere else. “We were trying to think of a name for this category, and ‘OMG’ summed it up,” he explained. “There’s literally a category for everyone.”
Airbnb also started offering a split stay option. This allows people to book two different homes in the same area on one trip. Or rent two different places in one category. Like booking two different national parks on the same trip.
