Airbnb Winter Release 2024: Key Updates for Hosts

Key Takeaways

• Airbnb's new Co-Host Network makes it easier for hosts to find and hire local co-hosts, simplifying property management.
• Improved search filters, map updates, and pricing tools help hosts increase their listing’s visibility and optimize booking rates.
• Winter travel trends show high demand for group bookings, summer weather, and event-focused trips.

Get ready to hit play on Airbnb’s latest blockbuster update—because for hosts, these quarterly releases are like catching the preview for the next big thing. Time to grab your popcorn and see what new features are set to make hosting easier (and more profitable) in the coming months. 

Airbnb is rolling out some heavy hitters with their 2024 Winter Release, including a brand-new Co-Host Network, smart search upgrades, and a few extra perks to help you keep your listings in the spotlight. 

If you’re not staying on top of these Airbnb releases, you might be missing out on features that can streamline your workflow, improve your bookings, and help you run your business more smoothly. Airbnb is constantly updating their platform with hosts in mind—all you have to do is pay attention!

What Is the Airbnb Winter Release?

The Winter Release from Airbnb is a seasonal update where Airbnb launches and announces new features and platform improvements for both hosts and guests. 

Key Highlights for Hosts in the 2024 Airbnb Winter Release

New Co-Host Network

One of the standout features of this release is Airbnb’s new Co-Host Network, which empowers hosts to find and connect with trusted co-hosts to help manage their properties. It’s a game-changer for those looking to scale their hosting business without handling everything solo.

50 app upgrades for a better guest search experience

Airbnb has rolled out 50 new app features and upgrades aimed at making it easier for guests to find the perfect stay. These updates streamline the search process with more intuitive filters and an improved user experience, helping guests discover listings like yours faster and more efficiently. 

New local payment options

Catering to a global audience, Airbnb has introduced four new local payment options:

1. Vipps in Norway
2. Mobile Pay in Denmark
3. MoMo in Vietnam
4. P24 in Poland

These payment options make it easier for international guests to book stays, potentially opening up new markets for hosts in these regions.

How the Newest Updates Work with Previous Release Features

Most updates launched in Airbnb’s seasonal releases are not just standalone additions—they enhance and refine what hosts have already been working with.

The 2024 Airbnb Winter Release is no exception, offering lots of improvements that build seamlessly on features introduced in prior updates.

Helping guests find the best possible stay

In last year’s 2023 Winter Release, Airbnb introduced the popular Guest Favorites Badge—a feature that highlights listings with great reviews. The Guest Favorites badge rewards hosts who consistently deliver stellar guest experiences by increasing their discoverability on the booking platform. 

The 2024 updates, including improvements to search filters and listing visibility, take this a step further by helping guests quickly find these highly rated properties. The more personalized filters now streamline the process of connecting guests with their ideal stays, giving listings with badges even more opportunities to stand out.

Co-hosting improvements

The 2024 Co-Host Network builds on 2023’s efforts to simplify co-hosting through co-host payout sharing and new messaging features.

The new Co-Host Network takes responsibility sharing with trusted partners to a whole new level of convenience, allowing short term rental operators to easily identify high-quality co-hosts and scale their businesses without sacrificing control. 

This network simplifies finding, onboarding and managing co-hosts directly from the Airbnb platform, making it a vital tool for busy or multi-property hosts. Airbnb’s vetting requirements are strict—the booking platform is probably more picky than you would be if you were recruiting a co-host yourself! 

Co-hosts must have hosted 10+ stays, maintain a response rate above 90%, and have a cancellation rate less than 3%, among other requirements. 

Continuing Airbnb's Summer 2024 focus on revenue management 

The 2024 Summer Release introduced an expanded earnings dashboard with interactive performance charts and automated earnings reports. These finance-focused updates helped hosts better visualize and understand their revenue.

This theme continues in the 2024 Airbnb Winter Update with new app upgrades designed to help hosts assess their earnings. With more than 150,000 hosts visiting the earnings dashboard daily, it’s clearly a vital component of the host experience. This season, Airbnb added features that make it easier for hosts to customize earning reports, understand income by type, and anticipate payouts.

Airbnb’s Co-Host Network

According to Airbnb, 40% of surveyed hosts say they would host more or expand their business further if they had more help.

The new Co-Host Network introduced in the 2024 Winter Release is focused on giving Airbnb hosts the help they need. 

What is the Co-Host Network?

Whether you’re a seasoned host juggling multiple listings or a beginner looking for an extra set of hands to help out, you can use the Co-Host Network to find a great hosting partner.

Hosts can search for local co-hosts through the Airbnb app, evaluate their profiles, and select those who align with their goals. It's a one-stop solution for hiring, onboarding, and managing co-hosts, all within the Airbnb platform.

There are currently more than 10,000 co-hosts across 10 countries, with more to come. 

• Co-hosts listed in the network are experienced hosts with a track record of success on Airbnb.
• Listed co-hosts have an average rating of 4.86
• Nearly three-quarters of co-hosts are Superhosts
• 84% of co-hosts help manage a Guest Favorite.

Benefits of the Co-Host Network 

For hosts:

• Simplified delegation: Tasks like guest communication, check-ins, and property maintenance can be easily delegated, freeing up time for hosts to focus on other areas of their business or personal lives.
• Local expertise: Hiring a local co-host means tapping into someone with knowledge of the area. They can offer personalized recommendations to guests and manage logistics like cleaning or restocking.
• Flexibility for busy hosts: The ability to hand off tasks to co-hosts allows primary hosts to step back without sacrificing the quality of their listings. Property managers who oversee multiple properties or those who travel frequently will appreciate the lighter workload! 
• Scalability: Hosts who want to grow their STR business can add more properties to their portfolios and lean on a co-host to manage them. You can add trusted co-hosts to each listing and monitor performance through the platform.

For co-hosts:

• Your business, your choice: You decide what kind of help you can offer hosts and at what price point. 
• Co-Host Community Center: once you become a certified co-host through the application form, you can join the Co-Host Community Network and get access to welcome sessions, webinars, workshops, office hours, and newsletters. 
• Send referrals and earn rewards: invite hosts that aren’t yet on Airbnb to partner with you and earn $240 for every new host that lists their space and completes a qualifying stay.

Personalized Updates and New Host Features

Airbnb's 2024 Winter Release rolls out personalized tools to help you manage your listings with less effort and more impact. From better visibility in search results to smarter pricing options, these Airbnb updates are all about making hosting easier and more effective. 

Here’s a breakdown of some key Airbnb host updates and features you’re sure to love:

Listing visibility improvements

One of the standout Airbnb updates from this release is the focus on improving listing visibility. 

Here’s what hosts can expect:

• Map updates: Airbnb’s map feature has been revamped, making it easier for guests to search and filter properties by location. This improvement can directly benefit hosts with properties near popular attractions or in high-demand areas, as their listings may now appear more prominently in guest searches. Improved map accuracy also ensures guests have a clearer understanding of your property’s location, so they enter a reservation with realistic expectations about where they’re staying.
• Personalized search filters: New personalized search filters allow guests to find properties tailored to their needs faster than ever. Airbnb's search algorithm now accounts for individual preferences, past booking behaviors, and location-based factors, offering more personalized search results and recommended filters. For hosts, this means your listing could be surfaced more often to guests who are likely to book your property based on their previous searches and preferences. 

Price setting tools for hosts

Pricing is a major challenge for Airbnb hosts, and the 2024 Winter Release addresses this with new pricing tools designed to help hosts optimize rates based on current market trends and guest demand.

Airbnb updates for hosts include:

Similar listings tool

The new similar listings tool gives hosts pricing insights by comparing their property to others with similar features and locations. 

Nightly price suggestion feature

This new feature analyzes real-time data and recommends optimal pricing for a listing’s nightly rate, ensuring rates align with guest demand and local trends. Hosts can apply suggested rates with just a click.

How AirDNA’s tools stack up

Airbnb's new nightly price suggestion tool and AirDNA’s Dynamic Pricing tool both aim to help hosts optimize their rates, but they operate quite differently.

Airbnb’s nightly price tool is designed to offer real-time, on-the-fly suggestions directly within the platform. It leverages Airbnb’s own booking data, providing tips based on the latest trends in guest demand, property features, and nearby competition. While convenient, it’s primarily geared toward offering short-term adjustments, which may not always reflect broader market trends or seasonality.

AirDNA’s Dynamic Pricing Tool offers a more comprehensive and customizable solution for hosts looking for deeper control over their pricing strategy. Unlike Airbnb's built-in tool, AirDNA pulls from a wide pool of data beyond just the Airbnb platform, covering market trends across Vrbo as well. Hosts get a more holistic view of their local market over a longer period of time, allowing for fine-tuned, data-driven pricing.

AirDNA’s custom comps feature is the—dare we say—superior tool to Airbnb’s similar listings tool. Like our Dynamic Pricing tool, you can compare your vacation rental property against both Airbnb and Vrbo properties. Plus, AirDNA’s comp set tool is totally customizable. You get to handpick which properties to benchmark yourself against. 

We offer 7 categories of comparison, in contrast to Airbnb’s 2 categories of features and locations. You choose which categories you want to build your competitor list from, whether that be number of reviews, host rating, or bedroom count. 

Lastly, you get much more than pricing comparisons with AirDNA’s comp set—we track occupancy, booked rate, booking lead time, and more for both you and hundreds of your competitors. 

Airbnb Insights on Winter Travel Trends

Aside from announcing handy new tools and features, this year’s Airbnb Winter Release also provided  valuable insights about emerging travel trends. From group bookings to trending travel categories, there are clear signals about what travelers want this winter. 

Group travel remains a staple

Group bookings remain popular—Airbnb reports that the average group size for property searches is four guests. In winter, Airbnb sees lots of group travel from families gathering to celebrate the holidays and take ski vacations. 

This data is in line with our research into the best number of bedrooms for an Airbnb, which shows that having more bedrooms generally increases earnings up to a certain point, with diminishing returns starting around 5-6 bedrooms. 4-bedroom properties seem to be a sweet spot for families and groups.

Guests are chasing summer fun this winter

It looks like guests are looking to keep the summer fun going well into the winter!

The most popular Airbnb categories this winter are:

1. Golfing
2. Amazing pools
3. National parks
4. Beaches
5. Top cities

These trends align with AirDNA’s data, which reveals the strong appeal of properties located near national parks—in fact, STR stays near national parks doubled between 2018 and 2023.

“Event-cation” and passion tourism is growing

"Event-cations" and passion-driven travel—where guests plan trips around specific events or interests—is also a major trend. 

Airbnb's 2024 release highlights this shift, noting that travelers are booking stays to align with popular events. 

In particular, travelers are seeking stays around:

• Concerts and music festivals: US music fans are searching for stays in Indio, CA for Coachella, and Indianapolis and Vancouver to catch the Taylor Swift Eras tour. 
• Sports events: Travelers are flocking to Auburn, Alabama; South Bend, Indiana; and Blacksburg, Virginia for college football matches. We noted the popularity of college football in our piece on college graduation short-term rental trends. 

Cultural events: We’re seeing travelers seek out accommodations in Guatemala City for El Día de los Muertos; Strasbourg, France for Christmas markets; and Zermatt, Switzerland for snow and skiing. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen vacation rental demand rise in relation to events—short term rental operators benefited from Super Bowl and eclipse demand earlier this year.

Trending destinations

Lastly, trending destinations for winter travel range from tropical escapes to cold-weather retreats, spanning continents from Europe to South America to Asia. Airbnb identifies trending destinations by looking at the number of search queries made last quarter for each location.

The diversity in where travelers are booking points to the importance of flexibility in marketing and identifying niche guest interests. Hosts can highlight their properties as ideal for holiday getaways, remote work stays, or adventure trips, depending on their location and amenities. 

Trending winter destinations worldwide:

1. Joinville, Brazil
2. Fortaleza, Brazil
3. Itajaí, Brazil
4. Cheste, Spain
5. Jervis Bay, Australia
6. Cornwall, England, UK
7. Santa Cruz de La Palma, Spain
8. Logroño, Spain
9. Caucaia, Brazil
10. Heroica Veracruz, Mexico

Trending destinations in the US this winter: 

1. Indianapolis, Indiana
2. South Bend, Indiana
3. Blacksburg, Virginia
4. Oxford, Mississippi
5. Auburn, Alabama
6. Iowa City, Iowa
7. Indio, California 
8. State College, Pennsylvania
9. Tacoma, Washington
10. Lubbock, Texas

Top international destinations where US guests are searching this winter:

1. Tokyo, Japan
2. Osaka, Japan
3. Noord, Aruba
4. Kingston, Jamaica
5. Vancouver, Canada
6. Guatemala City, Guatemala
7. Strasbourg, France
8. Zermatt, Switzerland
9. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
10. Niagara Region, Canada

How Hosts Can Make the Most of the Airbnb Winter Release

• Optimize Your Listing with New Filters: Take advantage of Airbnb’s new personalized filters to ensure your property shows up in relevant searches. Make sure your listing is accurately categorized to help guests find you.
• Leverage Co-Hosts: If managing a property is becoming overwhelming, now is the perfect time to explore Airbnb’s new Co-Host Network. You can outsource day-to-day tasks while maintaining control over your property by partnering with a trusted co-host.
• Highlight Key Amenities: As travelers seek out unique experiences, make sure your listing emphasizes any special features, such as proximity to events, outdoor activities, or winter attractions.