Airbnb Launches Pay Less Up Front, a New Flexible Payment Option for Travelers
At Airbnb, we're 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, we became the first major accommodations provider to make group travel seamless, allowing guests to easily split payments with friends or family. Now, we're 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 our commitment to providing flexible payment options to more guests, and greater opportunities for hosts. In our testing ofPay Less Up Front, we 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 our 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, we've 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.
WithPay 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.
Announcement Highlights:
- WithPay Less Up Front, guests can pay for part of their trip at the time of booking, and the rest closer to check-in.
- The upfront payment will be a 50% deposit in most cases. The rest can be paid closer to the check-in date.
- In our testing, we found that 40% of people who were given the option toPay Less Up Frontopted to do so, and that the feature led to higher-value bookings for hosts and nearly double the booking lead time.
To qualify forPay Less Up Front, the total stay must be $250 or more, and be booked at least 14 days from the check-in date.
About Airbnb
Since two hosts welcomed three guests in San Francisco in 2007, Airbnb has grown to over 5 million hosts in nearly every country around the world, hosting more than 1.5 billion guests. With hosts offering unique homes and experiences every day, guests can connect with their communities in a more authentic way.
About Airbnb.org
Airbnb.org is a nonprofit organization dedicated to facilitating temporary stays for people in times of crisis around the world. Airbnb.org operates independently and leverages Airbnb, Inc.'s technology, services, and other resources at no charge to carry out Airbnb.org's charitable purpose. The inspiration for Airbnb.org began in 2012 with a single host named Shell who opened up her home to people impacted by Hurricane Sandy. This sparked a movement and marked the beginning of a program that allows Hosts on Airbnb to provide stays for people in times of need. Since then, the program has evolved to focus on emergency response and to help provide stays to evacuees, relief workers, refugees, asylum seekers, and frontline workers fighting the spread of COVID-19. Since then, Hosts have offered to open up their homes and helped provide accommodations to 100,000 people in times of need. Airbnb.org is a separate and independent entity from Airbnb, Inc. Airbnb, Inc. does not charge service fees for Airbnb.org supported stays on its platform.
