Airbnb introduces payment splitting option for group trips

Online marketplace and hospitality service provider Airbnb announced that its users can now split payments with their fellow travelers, thus reducing the burden on one traveler.

Early on, one traveler was forced to fend the cost of the trip, in the hope that they would be paid back on time. With Airbnb's new option, one need not worry about timely payment, and go Dutch on this front too!

Payment splitting will work with up to 16 travelers, offering plenty of flexibility for large groups who travel together, reports TechCrunch.

When a trip organiser puts in a request to book a listing, the organiser'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. Following this, 72 hours time frame will be available to log in to Airbnb and complete the payment.

Airbnb, in its blog post, mentioned that this workflow applies to "listings that qualify for split payments". However, no further details are available.

Airbnb claimed that during the pilot phase of the feature, 30 percent of reservations booked with the payments splitting tool led to an expansion of its user base, thus helping them garner popularity on their platform.