Airbnb to launch loyalty program in 2022. What could be the perks?
Rated as 3rd most wanted feature in Twitter poll by Brian Chesky
To travellers,
Many of you, staying 100s of nights a year on the road are using hotel loyalty programs to get extra perks, such as suite upgrades, free breakfast, lounge access and more while staying at the hotels. That’s on top of the points you have been earning as well, to get free night stays. Until now Airbnb has been offering almost none of that, except earning some airline miles with selected partners (ANA, British Airways, Delta, Qantas). It seems like this might change in 2022, per a tweet of the CEO of Airbnb
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So far we can just speculate, what kind of benefits you could potentially get.
Room upgrades?
When hotels have usually different room and suite categories to choose from (unless you are staying at one category hotels like Ibis or CitizenM), Airbnb’s offer is really fixed - you are getting exactly the room that you see in the pictures - and there has been no upgrade option on-site. When booking a studio or a room in a bigger apartment, that’s what you’ll get as well.
Now, theoretically, if the same owner has 50+ flats to be rented out, they could upgrade you to a better one, but it is unlikely that Airbnb can push for that kind of upgrade.
Airbnb is also selling some hotel and hostel rooms on their platform, there could be the biggest opportunity for upgrades. However, what I have seen at other 3rd party platforms, such as Hotels.com VIP program or Halalbooking or Agoda Rewards, which advertise upgrade perks for their elite tier members, most of their hotels do not offer that. All considered I don’t think the Airbnb loyalty programme will feature upgrades.
Early check-in and late check-out?
On availability, that’s something that could be a benefit of the Airbnb loyalty program. It’s a perk I’ve been using for years at hotels - checking in at times as early as 8 am or checking out as late as 8 pm.
While I have seen that over time the hotels have cut the official hours - it used to be 8 am for IHG Royal Ambassadors, now it is 10 am. Radisson Blu’s 6 pm check out policy has cut back. In the recent refresh of GHA Discovery just last month, the top-tier elite benefit of 9 am has now been reduced to 11 am and check-out cut back from 6 pm to 4 pm.
Airbnb loyalty members could potentially benefit from this approach as well if the host has availability - during the previous night the room was free and there is no need to clean it on the day of arrival - why not allow checking in early for the VIP members. Likewise, if there is no incoming guest on the day of departure, late check-out could be feasible as well.
Free breakfast or lounge access?
Hotels have restaurants, where you could get free breakfast as an elite member. Even better when hotels have also executive lounges, where you could also get afternoon tea and evening happy hour drinks and snacks. At Airbnb, you’ll likely need to buy groceries yourself and then cook something out of those, or use food delivery services. That is unless you’ll be enjoying (and separately paying for) the local food experiences at restaurants, cafes and bars. While at some Airbnbs you’ll be staying with the host, who could share their food with you, it is unlikely that Airbnb HQ can convince the hosts to start cooking free breakfasts and dinners for their guests. Slice of toast with jam, perhaps, but a lavish buffet in Asian 5* style, most certainly not.
However, what could possibly work, in co-operation with local food delivery apps, where let’s say Airbnb Diamond members could get some 3-5 USD off coupons to be used in the city.
Welcome amenity?
I have seen welcome amenities of various quality levels through the years during my hotel stays. In the past, it was often a bottle of wine and some snacks. With pressure on cost-cutting, it is now mostly some snacks or fruits. It can vary a lot between the properties and your tier level. Some hotel chains, like Accor, provide also welcome drinks. Those again can, sometimes depend on your status. As Accor ALL Silver you could be limited to soft drinks, or as ALL Platinum or Diamond, could possibly enjoy various cocktails. Could Airbnb elites be offered welcome amenities as well? I think, yes, that’s something they could execute. Likely it could vary, in similar ways as it varies at hotels. Some hosts could perhaps offer you an apple or a cookie while booking a villa for a week could come with a bottle of local wine.
Member discounts?
Hotels have been offering 10% member discounts for booking direct. It is unlikely that Airbnb would offer this kind of blanket discount. However, it could be something that those staying at least 30 nights a year could get a 3% discount and those staying 50 nights a year at a 5% discount. The question will be also at whose expense that discount comes. Would Airbnb pressurise the hosts to eat up the loss due to the discount, or will it be something that Airbnb HQ is going to give up as part of their commission fee?
Earning and redeeming points?
Hotel loyalty programs usually offer an option to earn points for your stays and then redeem those points for some other future stays. Considering that many hotel programs are moving towards dynamic pricing of redemptions, which essentially means cashback, I feel like if Airbnb would implement a points system, it would be something similar to Accor ALL or GHA Discovery, where essentially you are earning 1 to 7% cashback in the form of points, depending on your loyalty level.
We could see something like 2% cashback in points for those staying at least 50 nights a year, up to 5% for those staying 100 nights a year.
Conclusion
While the Airbnb loyalty program is not likely going to be as fancy as some others in the field, where top-tier elite members can expect multi-category upgrades, lavish free breakfast or evening drinks, it still could potentially provide some perks, such as more flexible check-in/check-out terms, welcome amenities and additional discounts or cashback.
Stay tuned for more updates on this in 2022.