Airbnb’s Next Big Change: Search
Airbnb is really good at hyping up its incremental product changes, this better be as game-changing as it's billed to be. Either way, better search, better for the user in a world of overwhelm.
Airbnb announced a big earnings quarter on Tuesday and as part of that, also hinted at a big change coming in its product next week: a complete redesign of how people search on its service.
From its shareholder letter/release it posted along with the earnings, it also included an invitation for a launch event on May 11 where co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky will unveil a slate of product updates and changes — like it now does regularly on twice-a-year basis — in a live webcast.
“Searching for travel online has worked the same way for the past 25 years: you enter a location and dates into a search box. But the world has changed. Millions of people are more flexible about where and when they can travel. With homes in over 100,000 towns and cities, Airbnb opens up a world of possibilities.
To help guests discover these possibilities, we’re introducing the biggest change to Airbnb in a decade. With a completely new way to search, guests will be able to discover millions of unique homes they never thought to search for. And when they book, guests will have the confidence of knowing that Airbnb has their back each step of the way. To learn more, join us at airbnb.com/2022-summer on May 11, 9 a.m. EDT.”
I wrote about the “tyranny of the search box” back in 2015, when we published “Skift’s Manifesto On The Future of Travel in 2020“, where I wrote this rather optimistically: “Messaging apps are a place for connection. The one-size-fits-all booking search box is not a place for connection. Messaging is how you break out of the tyranny of the online travel search box, in use since 1995.”
