Airbnb is adding property characteristics such as verified WiFi speed to its details in a bid to win more business and flexible working renters.

Recent announcements from the short lets platform have suggested that it sees living and working remotely as likely to continue beyond the pandemic according to Airbnb, as guests this year spend more on longer stays than at any point in Airbnb’s history.

Now 20 percent of the Airbnb business is stays of one month or longer and long-term stays have become the platform’s fastest-growing category. 

To support this trend, Airbnb now allows users to search for stays up to 12 months (from six) and the platform is overtly linking this with announcements by many high profile companies –  including Procter & Gamble, Ford Motor Company, PwC, and Amazon – that its staff can continue to work remotely in certain circumstances. 

A consumer survey commissioned by Airbnb across five countries including the UK found that 63 per cent of all respondents say they have come to expect more flexibility from their employers, and one third said they will live somewhere else while working remotely more often after the pandemic than before the crisis. 

In 2021 alone, Airbnb says its users have clicked on the WiFi filter more than 288m times, so in response it is adding ‘Verified Wifi’ to property details, allowing hosts to test their listing’s internet connection from the Airbnb app and have their wifi speed authenticated.