New safety product for solo travelers

We are launching a new product aimed at promoting a safe and secure experience for solo travelers.

Airbnb strives to be a place where anyone can belong and feel safe while traveling. One strength is in the flexibility we offer to our guests through our over 6 million listings. From group trips to business travel to solo exploration — no matter what you’re looking for, you should be able to find and book it on Airbnb.

As the “live anywhere” phenomenon has taken off among people who are able to work remotely, our platform has become increasingly integral to solo travelers. According to Airbnb internal data, 26 percent of all nights booked in 2021 were by solo travelers, and more than 50 percent of nights booked for long-term stays during the first quarter of 2022 were for solo travelers. 

We recognize that the trust and safety of our solo traveler community is critical. As we saw the solo traveling and “live anywhere” trends begin to accelerate, our Trust team began working last year on a new product aimed at promoting a safe and secure experience for solo travelers, and we’re proud to announce it today.

Our new Solo Traveler in-app experience is specifically designed to better support safe solo traveling on Airbnb. When a solo guest books a private or shared room reservation, we will activate a specialized in-app experience, starting with supplying the traveler with expert tips they may want to try to help stay safe when traveling alone.

The key component of this new feature is the ability for the solo traveler to easily share, with one-touch, their reservation itinerary with the important and trusted people in their lives for added peace of mind and in the rare event of an emergency during a stay. The itinerary includes: listing address, reservation code, and check in and out dates.

Once the reservation is confirmed in the message thread with the Host, the traveler will see automated prompts by Airbnb suggesting questions to ask the Host about the listing and surrounding neighborhood. These suggested questions stem from research with experienced solo travelers who provided detail on the types of local insights that helped them stay safe while on the road.

This feature is initially being rolled out for English speaking guests. At this time, it will focus on bookings by solo travelers to private rooms or shared spaces. We plan to introduce this feature to additional countries and languages in the coming year, as well as expand it to include entire home listings as well.

Additionally, we recognize that female solo traveler safety is top of mind for the travel community right now. As we began developing the product, it became apparent that this could benefit all solo travelers, so the in-app experience will be made accessible to guests regardless of their gender identity.

Our hope is this new product will better equip solo travelers on Airbnb to be more informed travelers by getting their pre-trip questions answered, giving them a better understanding of their surroundings, and informing the important people in their lives about where they will be and for how long.  

This new feature complements our longstanding products and tools to promote safer travel experiences. Other in-app products like the 24-hour Safety Line are available to all travelers during active reservations. If a guest ever feels unsafe, they’ll get priority access to specially-trained safety agents, day or night.

We also make our Local Emergency Services in-app feature available to all users 24/7, regardless of whether or not they are in the middle of a reservation. With one-touch, this feature quickly connects the user to local emergency services (e.g., 911) — which could be particularly helpful for solo travelers who are traveling abroad in countries where they do not know the phone number off-hand for local police. This feature was recently extended to 70 countries and regions, with more to come. 

Lastly, all users have the option to add one Emergency Contact to their profile. 

In the rare circumstance that Airbnb needs to contact someone on your behalf, adding an emergency contact can help quicken that process. This can be found in Account Settings in the Personal Info tab towards the bottom of the page and only visible to Airbnb.

Airbnb was born in 2007 when two Hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home, and has since grown to 4 million Hosts who have welcomed more than 1 billion guest arrivals across over 220 countries and regions. Every day, Hosts offer unique stays and one-of-a-kind activities that make it possible for guests to experience the world in a more authentic, connected way. Providing hosted travel and the ability to live anywhere on a global scale, Airbnb has become a noun and a verb and most traffic to our platform remains organic. We will continue to invest in innovations that expand the travel market and lead the way in turning travel into a way of life.