Airbnb is testing unique payments feature for its hosts enabling them to get partially paid out during booking.
This brand new feature is yet to be rolled out for everyone at the moment.
Airbnb has mentioned that this is just a preliminary test to gauge interest. Invited hosts merely opt in to payout splitting to check out this feature.
Generally, Airbnb hosts are paid 24 hours after the guest’s scheduled check-in time. Thanks to the new payouts test, hosts who have been invited and opt in would receive 50 percent of their cash three days before the guest has booked their stay in the property enlisted on Airbnb. The other half would be received 24 hours after check-in time.
Airbnb would charge a 1 percent fee of the booking subtotal for early payouts.
As per usual norms, hosts can opt out of early payouts at any time by making the alteration in their Payouts Preferences. If a booking is cancelled after an early payout has been received, the amount would be deducted from the host’s next booking.
This follows on the heels of the announcement of Airbnb in February to add new tiers and types of lodging to the platform and this includes boutique hotels and B&Bs.
Airbnb classifies hosts with over six listings on the platform as Professional Hosts and early payouts are one way that Airbnb can help these hosts expand their business.
But then in certain housing-constrained markets like NYC, professional hosts are not necessarily welcome.
In May NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer had released a report mentioning that Airbnb’s presence in NYC is speeding up the cost of rent for full-time residents. The company and the Comptroller’s office went back and forth over the veracity of the report.
But then NYC is not the only market anxious about the folks who made Airbnb their full-time job.
In 2017, a study surveying 100 of the largest metro areas in the U.S. that found that a 10 percent increase in Airbnb listings leads to a 0.39 percent increase in rent and a 0.64 percent increase in housing prices.
The payouts test is geared toward professional hosts, but is being spread via an invite basis to both pro hosts and regular hosts.
Tags: Airbnb, Scott Stringer
