If you travel in groups, with friends & family, or maybe organise weekends away for group events; Airbnb has now rolled out the most requested new feature for 2017, which might be of some use!
Airbnb Split Payments
As 2016 was coming to a close Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, took to Twitter asking what his clients most wanted from the service in 2017 and Split payments was one of the highest requested additions.
If @Airbnb could launch anything in 2017, what would it be?
— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) 26 December 2016
Now, after some seriously impressive beta testing (80,000+ different groups, globally), and just in time for NYE, Airbnb have rolled it out to the general public. Historically, there would always be one person in the group who would cover the cost/s on a debit or credit card and hope everyone repaid them in a timely manner!
Although fare splitting is nothing new – uber introduced it a while back for ride sharing in groups – the Airbnb method is slightly different, but logical for their market.
When a oraganiser of a group makes a booking request for an Airbnb property, their card will be charged for a portion of the total booking and the dates will be blocked out in the host properties calendar.
Invite Friends to Pay
This confirms your booking and then shares the total cost of the rental between your group. The members then have 72 hours to pay their portion of the cost. Just enter their email address on the following screen. If they do not have an Airbnb account they will need to create one after they have received your email.
You can keep up to date with who has paid by reviewing your reservation under the ‘Your Trips’ section of the app. Anyone who has not paid will get another email notification 24 hours before the deadline!
This year, we have seen group travel surge. New Year’s Eve 2016 was our biggest night yet for group stays, and over the course of last year, 15.5 million groups took trips on Airbnb*, with an average stay of 3.5 nights.
Source: Airbnb Press.
If someone in the group fails to pay before the deadline, then Airbnb cancel the booking and refund everyone within the group. So make sure you are all in agreement before getting things started. Alternatively, someone can cover another member!
Connect with Airbnb
The Airbnb App can be downloaded for free for Android and iOS devices.
