Airbnb Rolls Out Group Payments

Booking a group trip on Airbnb just got easier: Users now have the ability to split payments with their fellow travelers.

According to TechCrunch news, this new service was made possible through Airbnb’s acquisition of social payments startup Tilt.

Before the launch of payment splitting, one traveler had to front the cost of the trip and hope that their friends/colleagues/family paid them back in a timely fashion. A recent poll from Airbnb found that 43 percent of users have lost $1,000 or more in repayments from group trips, 18 percent say they’ve lost $10,000 or more from not getting repaid after group trips and 29 percent have fought with a friend over group trip repayment.

On Christmas Day in 2016, the company’s CEO, Brian Chesky, asked users via Twitter what features they want most on Airbnb – and it’s no surprise that payment splitting was one of the top requests.

With payment splitting, up to 16 travelers can divide the cost of the trip. Airbnb says that 30 percent of reservations booked with the payments splitting tool (which has been in testing) led to one or more new users of the service.

Now, when a trip organizer puts in a request to book a listing, the organizer’s portion of the payment is charged on their credit card, bringing up a menu to share the booking with other members of the travel group. They then have 72 hours to log into Airbnb and pay their portion.

There are some stipulations to price splitting: The reservation must start at least 10 days from the time of booking, and the stay must be for less than 27 days.