Airbnb goes after wealthy travelers with new premium tier

If you haven’t tried Airbnb because it’s missing the amenities you find in luxury hotels, the service seems to be reaching out to you. A recent report from Bloomberg claims Airbnb is looking to introduce a new tier being called unofficially as “Select” that will feature more upscale properties. Airbnb itself will inspect these listings to see if they meet certain standards and the company will offer incentives like having a consultation with an Airbnb-provided interior decorator. Those who want to be part of the Select program will need to have things like new and matching bedding, single-use toiletries, available bottled water, tea, and coffee, and other amenities available in hotels.

Airbnb is supposedly targeting “older and wealthier travelers” who haven’t used Airbnb so far. The pilot test of the program is supposedly starting this week and will get a full rollout by the end of the year.

Source: The Verge

Airbnb introduces new security measures to help stop account takeovers

Airbnb is hoping to prevent accounts being illegally taken over by hackers and scammers with the new security measures it’s introducing into its app. One of them is multi-factor authentication. So whether you’re a gust or host, Airbnb will now require you to verify your login via a second account either through SMS or email. Airbnb is also introducing SMS alerts so you’ll see if there are changes made to your account with or without your knowledge.

According to the company, one of the most common security breaches on the service is when a scammer takes control of an account by obtaining the password. This, of course, poses a greater threat for Airbnb as this gives strangers access to private details about homes and the ability to rent this out to others. Airbnb says they are already using predictive models that are trained with machine learning techniques to flag uncharacteristic behavior. But that doesn’t seem to be enough. Hopefully, these new measures will help keep both hosts and guests safe.

Airbnb acquires Montreal-based luxury vacation rental site

It’s being reported that home rental service Airbnb dropped around US$300 million in cash and stock to buy upscale vacation site Luxury Retreats. Airbnb won’t disclose financial terms of the deal, though. The figures mentioned above were from a report by Bloomberg. Airbnb has over three million homes for rent in over 50,000 cities and has expanded its business bit by bit. In the past year, it started letting travelers book day trips and excursions through the site. Now, they’re moving into the luxury space with this acquisition.

Luxury Retreats has over 4,000 homes in 100 locations around the world. They offer more upscale villas for the affluent crowd and include a concierge service. The company will stay in Montreal at the moment and act as a standalone brand but over time their listings will be integrated and highlighted in Airbnb’s own platform.

Source: CNET

Airbnb now allows your neighbors to complain against unpleasant guests

As Airbnb gives its customers a glimpse at local life, that also means they’re immersed into the life of living in the neighborhood, even for a short period of time. And not all guests meet certain standards of a certain area. That’s why Airbnb is giving the people that live around your Airbnb place a chance to complain with the new Neighbors feature. The complaints can be anything from excessive noise, inappropriate activities, to misuse of common areas.

Once reported, Airbnb will study the case and match the address description with a possible listing on their service. If it matches, they will then inform the host without naming the neighbor about the complaint. If they want to meet up with the host, that can also be arranged by the service by giving their contact information to the host. We’re not sure how mediation will work though. That might be an entirely different issue altogether. 

Source: Airbnb