Airbnb goes back to basics with renewed focus on private room rentals

Airbnb is going back to its roots, the company has announced, with a renewed focus on renting out single rooms to travellers concerned about cost-of-living increases.

Labelled Airbnb Rooms, the short-term rental app will launch a range of features designed to encourage travellers to consider renting a single room in a house to save money and have new experiences on the move.

Travellers will be able to search specifically for private rooms and see how much they would save over renting a whole flat or house, and a new set of filters lets them see only rooms with a private en suite bathroom. The company will also flag which private rooms do not have an internal or external lock, allowing guests to ensure that they have a minimum level of privacy before booking.

The average price for an Airbnb room in the UK is £59 a night, Blecharczyk says, and globally, more than 80% of stays in private rooms were less than $100 (£80) a night.

The change in focus marks a return to basics for the company, which started in 2007 when roommates Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia began renting out space on air mattresses in their San Francisco living room. Blecharczyk joined in 2008 as the one-room B&B became a full venture, offering to pair people who needed a hotel room with those who had a spare room and needed extra cash. By 2009, it had expanded from airbeds and shared spaces to full properties, which gradually came to dominate listings on the platform.

Alongside the launch of private rooms, Airbnb is also releasing a set of features to address the viral criticism of the experience of checking out of a rental on the service. In late 2022, social media users shared experiences and jokes about being asked to perform increasingly ridiculous tasks by their hosts, from hoovering the carpets to walking the dog, as part of their checkout routine.

The shift back to promoting private rooms could also help Airbnb respond to criticism of its wider impact on cities and tourist areas around the world. As its whole-home rentals have grown, the company has found itself at the centre of rows over gentrification, over-tourism and housing scarcity, with residents of popular holiday destinations accusing landlords of taking homes off the rental market in order to profit from tourists instead.