Airbnb (ABNB) Unveils Label Feature to Boost Travel Booking
Airbnb ABNB unveiled a new label feature to rank the top listed properties of the company with a badge.
Notably, the feature will allow customers to see the top 25% and top 1% properties on the listing page, enabling them to choose wisely among a wide range of properties.
The top property label is based on key metrics such as subcategory ratings, review sentiment, host cancellations and quality-related customer service issues.
Additionally, the company will also mark the bottom 10% of properties with a badge, allowing users to sort reviews by lowest rated.
The new feature is designed to enhance customer satisfaction by enabling travelers to make more informed decisions before booking a property. This way it will likely boost online travel booking.
Airbnb, Inc. Price and Consensus
Airbnb, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Airbnb, Inc. Quote
Strengthening Travel Booking Aids Growth
The latest move is in sync with Airbnb’s growing efforts to enhance its travel booking offerings, which remains the key growth catalyst for the company. Its shares have rallied 16.1% in the year-to-date period, outperforming the Zacks Computer & Technology sector’s growth of 9.8%.
Notably, Airbnb launched Guest Favorites, a collection of 2 million most-loved homes based on ratings, reviews and reliability data from over half a billion trips. These homes have excellent ratings, high marks for check-in, cleanliness, listing accuracy, host communication, location and value, with host cancellations and quality-related issues below 1%.
Further, the company introduced the Listings tab, a set of new tools for hosts to manage their listings and showcase home details. The redesigned interface allows hosts to add amenities, sleeping arrangements, and more, while an AI-powered photo tour organizes photos by room to help guests understand the home's layout.
All the above-mentioned endeavors to enhance the online travel booking experience for customers will enable the company to capitalize on growth opportunities present in the online travel booking market. Per a Customer Market Insights report, the online travel booking market is likely to reach $1.6 trillion by 2032, exhibiting a CAGR of 12.6% between 2023 and 2032.
Solidifying prospects in this promising market is expected to drive ABNB’s overall top-line performance in the near term.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 revenues is pegged at $11.08 billion, indicating growth of 11.8% year over year.
Intensifying Competition
The latest move is likely to aid this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company to strengthen its competitive position against peers like TripAdvisor TRIP, Booking Holdings BKNG, and Expedia Group EXPE, which are also making continuous efforts to capitalize on growth opportunities present in the online travel booking market.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Notably, Tripadvisor introduced generative AI-powered summaries for travelers to research hotels, providing insights on popular themes and details based on past reviews.
Tripadvisor unveiled several updates to its ‘Trips’ planning tool, including the inclusion of hotels, known activities, proximity-prioritized itinerary recommendations and personalized ‘For You’ recommendations based on user saves.
Meanwhile, Booking Holdings’ subsidiary, Priceline, added a slew of generative AI-powered features to its Trip Intelligence suite, facilitating the trip planning and booking process for travelers to save time.
Expedia, on the other hand, partnered with Afterpay to facilitate an enhanced booking experience for travelers in Australia.
With the partnership, Expedia will be able to offer travelers the flexibility of payments with Afterpay’s 'Pay in 4' product. This will allow travelers to pay in four interest-free installments for six to eight weeks. Further, Australian travelers can use Expedia Group's Strategic Partnerships and Affiliate technology to explore and book over three million properties globally.
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