Airbnb has officially ended the Airbnb Plus Program as of November 6th. Airbnb Plus was an invitation-only program designed to highlight and promote listings that met Airbnb’s rigorous standards and a comprehensive checklist. It stood apart from Superhost status due to its more stringent requirements.
To earn an Airbnb Plus badge, hosts needed to receive an invitation to the program. They then underwent an initial inspection, which included professional photos taken of their property. While both Superhosts and Airbnb Plus hosts provided exceptional service, Airbnb Plus properties adhered to elevated standards for style and physical space design based on Airbnb’s checklist. Interestingly, Airbnb often used photographers themselves to conduct inspections and capture listing photos.
Once a property was accepted into the program, it received a Plus banner to enhance visibility. However, Airbnb Plus was only available in select cities, including Austin, Barcelona, Cape Town, Chicago, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Milan, Nashville, San Francisco, Shanghai, Sydney, and Toronto.
If a host was part of the Plus program, they needed to opt out and convert their listing back to a regular one. Although the Plus program started with over 70,000 listings, its growth didn’t materialise as expected. As of this month, we bid farewell to the program. Instead of Plus, Airbnb has introduced a new feature called “Guest Favorites,” earmarking over 2 million highly-rated homes.
It’s worth noting that the top tier of Airbnb properties still exists through Airbnb Luxe, which originated from the acquisition of Luxury Retreats in 2017.
