Airbnb getting ready for +2bn reservations

1

Hi there

(This post is nerdy in nature and useless in purpose.)

Just noticed a small thing today: Airbnb has changed their reservation code. You know, the 2BE31A 6-characters long code that is only useful if you ever have to contact support.

That confirmation code was composed of 6 random characters from any letter of the alphabet and digit. Basically, that is 36^6 possible combinations, which cover 2 176 782 336 reservations. In practice, however, you don’t need to reach that number to start having problems.

Airbnb has today changed their reservation confirmation code to 10-characters. I don’t have a large enough sample to see how things are going, but I believe they will all start by “HM”, then the next 8 (may still) be completely a random character out of 36.

The fact that they start by HM is likely an indication for a “domain” such as “hosting property”. I actually do not know what the “M” would stand for, but I would expect “HE” for experiences and probably “FL”, “CR” for flights and car rental in the future.

With the remaining characters, that means 36^8, so 2 821 billion random codes available.

So, yeah, they are getting ready to take over the world.

7 Likes
3

Thank you Smart. I love how you can read the future of their plans!

4

No, it’s fascinating! :slight_smile:

4 Likes
5
  1. Airbnb rolled the change back. New reservations that I see are still on the 6 character random codes. I believe there were a few bugs on the way :wink:
  2. “HM” obviously should stand for “HOME”.
  3. @Robert_Dudley, I believe "LR would apply to a listing, not so much to the reservation, but I haven’t got my hands on one of those yet! I am not even sure both websites would merge at one point.
1 Like