Airbnb announced that they are working to bring the world closer together through magical travel, powered by people. A big part of making travel magical is offering convenient and flexible ways to book trips.
In November, the platform became the first major accommodations provider to make group travel seamless, allowing guests to easily split payments with friends or family. Now, it is making paying for travel even more convenient with Pay Less Up Front.
Before today, Airbnb guests paid for 100% of the trip at the time of booking. With Pay Less Up Front, guests can pay for part of the trip at the time of booking – a 50% deposit in most cases – and pay the rest closer to the check-in date.
The new feature extends the platform’s commitment to providing flexible payment options to more guests, and greater opportunities for hosts. In its testing of Pay Less Up Front, Airbnb saw a clear demand for more convenient payments: Given the option of paying less up front, 40% of guests chose to do so, and opted for higher-value bookings on the whole.
Pay Less Up Front helps Airbnb’s hosts as well. Given the ability to pay in installments, hosts won’t lose out on bookings from cash flow-sensitive guests who prefer not to pay the entire amount up front. What’s more, the platform has found that Pay Less Up Front encourages bookings further in advance: Compared with ordinary bookings, the Pay Less Up Front payment option led to bookings with nearly double the lead time, helping hosts to secure and manage bookings more easily.
With Pay Less Up Front, hosts and guests alike can book travel with greater confidence, no matter a guest’s payment preferences or needs.
The new payment option is available today across all platforms: iOS, Android, mobile-web and desktop.
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