Split Airbnb Payment With Friends

      Airbnb acquired peer to peer payment startup Tilt in the early part of this year to solve one its guest's biggest problems when they travel as a group. Before, one traveler paid for everyone and then had to collect from the other travelers. Soon they will be able to pay their shares when booking on the Airbnb payment portal. 

One down side is the the reservation is open for 72 hours to give all parties the time to pay, then another 24 hours to give the original booking party time to pay if one of the group doesn't pony up. This means your inventory could be tied up for a few days and you could still lose the booking. I don't see this as a huge concern in larger properties however, because most four bedroom and larger properties tend to book a few months in advance. It might affect smaller properties which book closer to travel dates, and tend to have more competition in their markets.

Overall it should certainly have a positive impact in growing Airbnb's user base, which increases competition for host properties. This should more than make up for an occasional lost reservation for hosts.  This functionality should roll out in the next few days, and if you want to learn more about it, follow this link to the Forbes article.

Tell us what you think in the comments.