Airbnb Now Allows Group Travelers to Split Costs of Rentals
There's nothing better than going on vacation with friends and family and sharing new memories. But when it comes to splitting the bill at the end of the trip, well, that's something not everyone loves — except for the organizer who likely helped to foot the bill at the beginning. Airbnb has introduced a new feature to alleviate this; beginning today, you can split the bill with everyone at the time of booking an Airbnb.
The new feature allows one person to book an Airbnb and after that, there's a page where you can invite friends to split the cost. The organizer pays their share and the booking will be placed on hold until everyone in the party has fulfilled their payment. If everyone doesn't fulfill the payment before the deadline within 72 hours of the booking, the reservation will be forfeited and everyone will get their money back.
Around Christmastime last year, Airbnb co-founder and CEO Chesky tweeted: "If @Airbnb could launch anything in 2017, what would it be?" The overwhelming response was a group payment method. Airbnb is the first accommodation provider to offer a split payment feature, but the concept is not new. Ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft both have split fare features and Uber says it is one of the most utilized feature on its app.
If @Airbnb could launch anything in 2017, what would it be?
— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) December 26, 2016
According to Airbnb, the most popular destinations for group bookings in the US (five or more people are traveling together) are Los Angeles, Nashville, Las Vegas, Kissimmee, Florida and New York City. As far as group travel around the globe goes: Tokyo, London, Paris and Rome are the most popular destinations for groups.
According to an Airbnb survey of 2,000 American travelers, 79% have been on group trips in the last five years. 52% report that they've fronted $500 or more and 31% have fronted more than $1,000. The new feature hopes to alleviate the financial burden on one person paying for lodging. It will also offer more listings that would otherwise fall outside the organizer's what the organizer may be able to afford.
A pilot program of the new tool was launched in June, 2017 and over 80,000 groups successfully split payments for their travel from all over the world.
Photo by @rycette via Twenty20
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| 2X miles | 2 miles per dollar on every purchase |
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Why We Chose It
The Capital One Venture X Business Card has all the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card has to offer and more. It offers an incredible welcome bonus and requires an equally impressive spend to qualify. In addition, the card comes with premium travel perks like annual travel credit. (Partner offer)Pros
- The Capital One Venture X business card has a very lucrative welcome offer.
- In addition, the card comes with many premium travel perks such as an annual $300 credit for bookings through Capital One Business Travel.
- Business owners are also able to add employee cards for free.
Cons
- The card requires significant spending to earn the welcome offer.
- Another drawback is that the annual travel credit can only be used on bookings made through Capital One Business Travel.
- LIMITED-TIME OFFER: Earn up to 400K bonus miles: 200K miles when you spend $30K in the first 3 months, and an additional 200k miles when you spend $150k in the first 6 months
- Earn unlimited 2X miles on every purchase, everywhere—with no limits or category restrictions
- Earn 10X miles on hotels and rental cars and 5X miles on flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Business Travel
- With no preset spending limit, enjoy big purchasing power that adapts so you can spend more and earn more rewards
- Empower your teams to make business purchases while earning rewards on their transactions, with free employee and virtual cards. Plus, automatically sync your transaction data with your accounting software and pay your vendors with ease
- Redeem your miles on flights, hotels and more. Plus, transfer your miles to any of the 15+ travel loyalty programs
- Every year, you'll get 10,000 bonus miles after your account anniversary date. Plus, receive an annual $300 credit for bookings made through Capital One Business Travel
- Receive up to a $120 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®. Enjoy access to 1,300+ airport lounges worldwide, including Capital One Lounge locations and Priority Pass™ lounges, after enrollment
- Enjoy a $100 experience credit and other premium benefits with every hotel and vacation rental booked from the Premier Collection
- This is a pay-in-full card, so your balance is due in full every month