Airbnb has announced the global release of its new feature, Flexible Destinations, which gives its users a fresh browsing and booking experience. Now, users will be able to find unique places to stay when they click on "I'm Flexible". This option will provide unique listing categories ranging from private islands, cabins, and domes, to tiny homes, treehouses, and boats. It will also enable users to book a trip to a unique location by seeing the search results displayed on a map and searching with flexible dates.
Compared to 2019, unique home searches have augmented by 94% in 2021, and searches for specific unique locations have increased by ten times as compared to the past two years. Specific searches for Tiny homes, houseboats, farm stays, barns, earth houses, huts, islands, and yurts have increased by 791%, 1,015%, 1,055%, 1,068%, 1,285%, 1,379%, 1,668%, and 1,701% respectively.
The announcement from Airbnb mentioned that:
Flexibility is a key trend emerging from the pandemic as people become less tethered and the lines blur between travel, living and working. Flexible Destinations joins Flexible Dates, which was rolled out in February, and Flexible Matching, which will go live in the coming weeks. These innovations represent a new paradigm in travel booking and planning, moving away from the traditional approach of planning trips around a fixed destination with fixed dates.
Airbnb users get the option of choosing from among 170,000 unique properties listed in the app. This feature will also play a pivotal role in spreading travel with a wide array of unique properties that are located outside of famous tourist spots.
