Airbnb Hacks to Secure the Perfect Accommodation
Liz DeBold Fusco is Communications Lead for North America for Airbnb. Prior to that, she was a Vice President at SKDKnickerbocker, a national public affairs firm, where she provided strategic communications guidance to organizations ranging from the NAACP and Demos to The Rockefeller Foundation and AT&T. Liz has also worked for the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City and New York City First Lady Chirlane McCray as well as the New York State Attorney General. For more information visit airbnb.com
Transcript
00:00 Planning a memorable holiday begins with booking the right place to stay and I
00:04 talked with Liz DeBoer Fusco from Airbnb about the best Airbnb hacks to help your
00:10 holiday travel dreams come true.
00:14 Good morning Liz how are you doing? I am good how are you? I'm doing great because
00:22 you know what it is actually that time of year for people to start thinking
00:24 about doing those fall holidays or even getting ready for 2024. So let's start
00:29 about some of the you know trending places people are looking at to go to.
00:34 Yeah you know it's really interesting we're seeing a little bit of everything
00:39 heading into the end of the year in terms of travel trends from far-flung
00:43 destinations to more nearby getaways. Actually our top trending destination
00:48 for winter holiday travel for families as well as for travelers from all walks
00:53 of life is actually Tokyo Japan and again that's that's really interesting.
00:57 Japan is interesting because they're a little bit less than a year out from
01:00 lifting their COVID-19 pandemic lockdown so travelers are clearly looking to take
01:06 advantage of that either visiting Japan for the first time or getting to return
01:10 for the first time in many years. After Japan other trending destinations
01:15 include Quebec City Canada as well as Rio de Janeiro where you know that that
01:20 really shows you the spectrum of travelers desires right now from snowy
01:24 skiing getaways to getting to go to a place where you can get a little bit of
01:28 Sun. But you know it's not all international travel right now there's
01:32 also a lot of trending US destinations too that includes largely college
01:37 football towns that really drives trends this time of year. So for instance Ann
01:42 Arbor Michigan is trending, Tuscaloosa Alabama is trending for people who want
01:46 to go see a game in person. But one thing worth calling out no matter where you're
01:50 looking to go whether it's a trending destination or not there are still
01:53 plenty of budget friendly options available. In fact we're seeing families
01:58 can get an Airbnb with two bedrooms and one bathroom for less than the price of
02:02 one hotel room at a major chain right now. So again a lot a lot of affordable
02:06 options out there. I like that. Liz you know it's kind of funny is that people
02:10 do not take advantage of the filter option on Airbnb. They go and
02:15 scroll they keep scrolling not realizing that filter option is great for them to
02:20 actually help them find accommodations that's gonna fit the whole family or
02:23 just you know for them. So let's talk about how they can actually use that a
02:27 little bit more. Yeah I'm glad you brought that up. It is a great hack. So
02:32 you know when you go to search for a stay you know to put in your destination
02:35 you know to put in your dates. But then the other thing that you can do is
02:39 select any number of our filters and what that allows you to do is you will
02:43 only see listings return in your search that meet your exact needs. That meet
02:48 that have those different criteria that you're filtering for. Those those must
02:52 have amenities really. I'll give you an example we just added two new filters
02:56 that I think are great for holiday travel planning. The first is pet
02:59 friendly stays. So you can again filter for stays that will let you bring your
03:04 pet. Let you bring that furry companion with you. And then another new filter is
03:07 king-sized beds. Again filtering just for listings that have a king-sized bed. But
03:13 there are so many others you know cribs, gyms. You can really run the gamut in
03:17 terms of curating a stay. A curating a search that really will meet your exact
03:22 needs. Yeah I love I love I just saw the dog actually making the Airbnb
03:27 reservations. That was so good. So what are some other little hidden gems that
03:34 people don't realize that they can use to of course make their Airbnb stays in
03:40 these different cities so much better? Yeah I'll call it one of my favorites
03:45 and that's wish lists. They are a great way to keep track of the homes you love
03:49 on Airbnb the moment you find them. And without even having to leave your search.
03:53 So say after this you want to go you go create your 2023 holiday travel wish
03:58 list. You start searching for homes and you can tap and save homes to that
04:02 particular wish list. And it just makes planning a lot easier. And then again
04:06 making it even easier we've actually rolled out two new features for wish
04:10 lists. The first is you can now add notes to each home within your wish list to
04:14 remember why you love them in the first place. And then when it's time to book
04:18 you can easily check their availability with the new calendar filter. Again all
04:23 these little hacks they're just a great way to make holiday travel planning even
04:26 easier. I love it. Liz I don't know if you know but how does Airbnb find these
04:31 awesome unique little places to go find? I know we got to wrap it up but how do
04:36 they do it's so amazing how you look on there and there's like a treehouse you
04:40 know in the middle of the forest. It's crazy. Yeah well I'll say we're really
04:46 lucky because those places actually find us. We have an incredible creative host
04:52 community you know if you can dream it there are people out there who are
04:56 determined to build it and they make these beautiful stays that are available
05:00 on Airbnb. It's really what distinguishes us you know the thing that people love
05:04 about Airbnb is that it offers such one-of-a-kind travel and that's really
05:08 true. Again anything that you can can think of any type of place you can think
05:12 of to stay in there is probably a host out there that's made it and and wants
05:16 to welcome you to that exact place. I love it I love this. Alright Liz where
05:19 can we people find more information? Yes you can go to Airbnb.com. Perfect right
05:25 there. Liz thanks for joining us this morning. Thank you so much for having me
05:30 happy holidays.
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