Airbnb boasts a new AI-forward search update
An optional AI search bar lets travelers describe what they want in plain language.
Airbnb is betting that a new AI search experience will help it continue to win over travelers in a move that’s already charmed Wall Street.
The changes include an optional, toggle-controlled AI search bar where users can write what they’re looking for in plain English and see results filtered accordingly. The new search tweaks come alongside a suite of other updates announced in a Sept. 30 press release. Airbnb’s share price rose 2.35% that day, beating competitors Booking and Expedia.
The new search function was one of several AI tweaks, including a new tool that generates a comparison of two rental listings side-by-side and one that creates a description of a home’s key features. Also in the update were social features including an option to add phone contacts, and an interactive “travel map” to see where they’ve vacationed in the past.
The updates are one more vignette in an AI-forward narrative that has won over analysts and investors. Despite enjoying consistent revenue growth since the pandemic, Airbnb has not been immune to concerns that artificial intelligence could threaten its middleman software. Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky has responded by working to depict Airbnb as an AI winner, claiming that the technology is “the best thing to ever happen” to his company in an earnings call on Aug 6. He said the company leveraged AI to improve its booking process and roll out new features, including a nascent “services” section, more quickly.
Chesky has laid out high hopes for the company’s growth. He has professed a vision of AI- driven expansion that brings Airbnb beyond vacations and into the realm of an “everything” app, melding a social network and platform to format to book any service or experience.
The company’s stock shot up over 17% in the trading session following its earnings call. And analysts concurred: Deutsche Bank’s Benjamin Black called Airbnb a “clear emerging AI winner” later in the month. KeyBank’s Sergio Segura upgraded his rating of the stock last week following the company’s AI search announcement, citing Airbnb as an “AI beneficiary.”
Chesky said Airbnb is going to move quickly on developing new AI features while discussing the new search option in an interview with TechCrunch.
“What you see is just the very beginning of something,” he said.
