Airbnb Updates: Cutting Cleaning Fees and Boosting Verified Listings

Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, September 21. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

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Episode Notes

The travel industry now – for the first time – has an index to track public travel stocks. Skift unveiled on Wednesday the Skift Travel 200, the first benchmark for measuring the $1 trillion-plus market for public travel companies. 

Senior Research Analyst Seth Borko reports the Skift Travel 200 will track  travel company stock performance as well as analyze metrics such as revenue growth and profit margins. Borko adds that the Skift Travel 200 will be able to break down travel industry performance by sector. The index currently tracks 196 public companies from 34 countries, with each company classified into one of five travel sectors. 

Next, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky provided updates on Wednesday about verified listings on its platforms and cleaning fees, among other issues, writes Short-Term Rental Reporter Srividya Kalyanaraman.

Chesky tweeted that the company is building a new system to verify its listings. Each verified listing will have a special icon, which Chesky said is part of Airbnb’s efforts to assure users that listings aren’t fake. Airbnb plans to verify every listing in five countries — including the U.S., Canada, and Australia — in the next several months. Verified icons are set to appear on those listings starting next February.  

Meanwhile, Chesky added that more than 200,000 listings have either reduced or removed cleaning fees since Airbnb started displaying the total price of stays last December.  

Finally, Dubai is set to offer travelers more hotel rooms than Las Vegas by the end of the year, writes Middle East Reporter Josh Corder.

Dubai is expected to have more than 154,000 hotel rooms, according to real estate consultancy firm Knight Frank. That’s roughly 2,000 more than what Las Vegas currently has. Dubai’s hotel count is projected to increase 6% from last year. Corder reports Dubai is seeing a surge in luxury hotel construction, with close to half of its planned rooms in luxury properties.