Airbnb's app is getting a little more travel-friendly.
The company will roll out a new version of the app for iPad and Android tablet users Wednesday night, the first time Airbnb has had a dedicated app for larger mobile displays.
Feature-wise, the tablet app isn't much different than the existing smartphone apps. Users can browse and book listings, contact hosts, get directions or check for last-minute rentals. It also has a dedicated host experience, so hosts can manage their listings and respond to messages.
Alex Schleifer, Airbnb's design chief, said the look of the image-focused tablet app is meant to be reminiscent of a magazine spread or coffee table book with big glossy photos.
"We wanted to focus on photography ... it's a tremendously large catalog that we have," Schleifer told Mashable. "We know that people explore cities through the photos of our homes so we wanted the tablet to really make this front and center. "
IMAGE: AIRBNB
This is evident throughout the app. The home screen, for example, features high-resolution photos of popular destinations while search results emphasize photos first. Similarly, swiping left from the map view of search results displays photos of listings in a grid of images.
Mobile is an increasingly important area for Airbnb: The company says two-thirds of all bookings have "some sort of mobile component," a number that jumps to 80% for last-minute bookings.
The tablet app is iPad and Android only for now, though Schleifer didn't entirely discount the possibility of a Windows version in the future. He also said an app for the Apple Watch or Android Wear smartwatches is possible.
"What we will never do is just launching something for the sake of it and it's really hard to see the benefits that we can add to it until something is out in market," he said. "We're definitely looking at the Apple Watch, as we should. How can this bring value to our hosts and our guests, that's the way we look at it first."
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