May 2021 - Top PR Agency in the Philippines

May 31, 2021August 7, 2024

Introducing the Airbnb 2021 Release: 100+ Upgrades Across Entire Service for Filipino Hosts, Guests

Inspired by the major shift in how people are traveling within the Philippines and around the world, Airbnb is introducing more than 100 upgrades for its Filipino Hosts and guests. From its website to community support and policies, Airbnb has been working to refine and improve every aspect of its service. The Airbnb 2021 Release introduces features that aim to give Pinoy guests even more flexibility when planning their travels and to make it simpler for anyone in the Philippines to become a Host.

These key updates come as Airbnb data reveals that Filipinos are turning to Airbnb for affordable and family-friendly domestic travel. Filipinos have also been hosting to support themselves and their local communities during the pandemic.

A recent YouGov survey* shows that travel with immediate family is the number one reason for domestic travel among Filipinos, with family vacations being the primary reason to travel this year for six out of 10 Filipinos.
Notably, a survey** conducted by Airbnb of Filipino guests and Hosts reveals approximately 62 percent of guests stayed in an Airbnb listing with their family in 2020. More than 58 percent of guests also said an Airbnb Stay was a more affordable choice of accommodation.
In the same survey, 57 percent of Airbnb Hosts said the income they’ve earned through hosting has helped them stay in their homes and more than half said they want to find more ways to host with Airbnb. More than a third of Filipino Hosts said they recommend their favorite local restaurants and businesses within their community to their guests.

“We are seeing three fundamental shifts in travel as people become less tethered and more flexible,” said Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb. “People now are traveling anytime to more places and staying longer. Because the lines between travel, living and working are blurring, we are upgrading our service to make it easier for people to integrate travel into their lives and for more people to become Hosts.”

100+ upgrades across the entire Airbnb Experience for guests and Hosts

Making it easier for guests

With flexibility at the heart of a new, improved browsing and booking experience, Airbnb is introducing three new ways to search on the platform: Flexible Dates, Flexible Matching and Flexible Destinations.

Flexible Dates, which Airbnb started rolling out in February, makes it easy to find the best places to stay if you are flexible on when to go. Rather than searching with fixed dates, you can search for a weekend getaway, a week-long vacation or even a month-long stay. Since launching the tool, the platform has seen more than 100 million searches.
Flexible Matching offers a wider selection of listing results when you search for a place to stay by surfacing homes just outside of your search parameters. This way, you never miss out on a great stay that falls just outside of what was specified in the search. A farm stay in Tagaytay that costs PHP3,200 per night, for example, will be included in your search results where you specified a PHP3,000 max setting.
Flexible Destinations is a new way to plan trips when finding a unique place to stay is more important to you than traveling to a specific destination. It adapts to your location and helps you discover incredible properties in places you might not have thought to search for. For instance, it surfaces family villas in the Philippines, ryokans in Japan and castles in Spain. From treehouses to boats, there are more than 170,000 unique homes to choose from on Airbnb and the number of searches for unique listings has grown 94 percent so far in 2021 compared to the same period in 2019.

Airbnb is also significantly improving its search capabilities to help people find their ideal place to stay. New filters will adapt to the season or location and allow people to search for homes near points of interest such as national parks or with very specific attributes such as whether the property has an ocean view.

Additional upgrades for guests include:

Faster checkout process – Reduced number of steps for new guests to confirm their first reservation.
Arrival guide – Easy access to all the helpful information a guest needs (directions, door codes, Wifi, etc.) before check-in.
Updated reviews – Guests now have a fuller spectrum, from critiques to compliments, to rate their stay.
Clearer cancellations – Refreshed cancellation policies increase clarity for both guests and Hosts.

Making it easier to host

Today, Airbnb is making it even easier to become a Host with a brand-new onboarding process that has been simplified from dozens of steps to just 10 and supported by the latest technologies. Computer vision deep-learning models automatically arrange photos based on their guest appeal while smart text suggestions help Hosts craft the best title and description for their listing. Streamlining and simplifying the process will help anyone who wants to host and take advantage of the coming travel surge be onboarded quickly. In fact, in Q1 2021, for new listings that were activated and booked, 50 percent received a reservation request within four days of activation.

Additional upgrades for Hosts include:

All-new Today tab – A new, centralized home base to make it easier for Hosts to manage bookings and daily tasks. Here they will see new booking requests, upcoming reservations, details of current guests and quick links to the most used Host tools.
New welcome to hosting page – A redesigned hub for new Hosts with helpful articles and testimonials and an improved tool to estimate potential earnings from hosting based on nightly rates and occupancy in their immediate area.
Inbox improvements – Messages now load up to 10 times faster and new features include Personalized Quick Replies, which lets Hosts reply with one tap to guests’ often-asked questions, and Scheduled Messages, which automates sending reminders such as checkout instructions.
Dedicated Superhost support – A dedicated support team for Superhosts and Host Community Leaders gives our most experienced Hosts priority access to our most experienced support agents.

World-class service

Airbnb is also improving its community support by doubling the number of support agents and expanding its support coverage from 11 to 42 languages. A completely redesigned Help Center will be easier to navigate by offering more personalized support to Hosts and guests.

Supporting our Philippine Airbnb community

In the Philippines, Airbnb has launched seven Host Clubs in Cebu, Baguio, Metro Manila, Rizal, Western Visayas, Lapu Lapu and Quezon. Host Clubs are Host-led networks of Airbnb Hosts, guests, small business owners and local community leaders who are passionate about home sharing. These clubs support Filipino Hosts as they connect, collaborate and support each other and their local communities during the pandemic by sharing advice and best practices on hosting.

“Hosting with Airbnb has helped me grow not only as a hospitality provider but as an individual as well. It has broadened my horizons and taught me to embrace different cultures and beliefs. I am grateful to be hosting with a company that continually promotes diversity and belonging, and am honored to be a voice for the Metro Manila Host community where we have been working hand-in-hand to improve our hosting standards through specially curated workshops,” shared Bernadette Ann Balgomera, Airbnb Host Club leader in Metro Manila.

The blurring of traveling and living

Many of these upgrades were inspired by a comprehensive analysis of Airbnb booking data and consumer research, which reveals the extent to which the pandemic has fundamentally changed travel. With 4 million Hosts across more than 220 countries and regions and close to 1 billion guest arrivals, Airbnb is in a unique position to see how travel is changing. The analysis reveals three key trends:

In part due to remote work trends, people are less tethered and more flexible on when they can travel. Since the start of this year, Airbnb has seen more than 200 million date-flexible searches, 100 million of which used the new Flexible Dates tool.
Travel is being distributed to a much wider range of destinations. In the 12 months until April 30, 2021, Airbnb had bookings in 94,000 cities.
People are staying longer on trips. The share of stays 28 days or longer on Airbnb has increased from 14 percent of nights booked in 2019 to 24 percent in Q1 2021.***

Note:

For a full list of all 100+ upgrades, please visit www.airbnb.com/2021.

The Airbnb Report on Travel & Living can be downloaded at https://news.airbnb.com/2021-travel-report.

*Survey conducted by YouGov between 28 April and 18 May 2021 with a sample size of 1,100.
**Survey from Feb 1, 2021 to Mar 3, 2021 for Homes Hosts who hosted a trip during 2020 or Homes guests who took a trip during 2020.
***Nights booked before cancellation and alterations.

May 30, 2021August 7, 2024

Toyota Gazoo Racing Academy PH is Back in Session, Revs Up for This Year’s Vios Cup

Leading mobility company and motorsport supporter Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) has kicked off this year’s racing season with the much-awaited reopening of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Academy Philippines (TGR Academy). With the goal of promoting the love for motorsport and continuously developing globally competitive Filipino racers, the academy welcomed a new set of drivers along with familiar faces in the racing industry.

May 25, 2021May 27, 2021

Confession: I Cannot Find the Emotional Strength to Respond to Messages Lately

May 24, 2021August 7, 2024

Toyota Dealerships Remain “At Your Service” Amid the Pandemic

Kaizen, a Japanese term that means continuous improvement, is a Toyota philosophy that keeps Toyota ready to quickly adapt to shifting customer needs and buying behavior amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The philosophy is innate to its entire network.

Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP), the leading automotive company in the country, is taking a two-pronged approach to provide Filipinos with fast, reliable service while prioritizing safety for both customers and staff. The company continues to accelerate its digital capabilities while on-site operations are enhanced to provide worry-free customer experience.

May 19, 2021August 7, 2024

Adulting in a Pandemic 101

The pandemic has caught everyone off guard. While health and safety remain top priority, staying afloat may be the biggest challenge for many, even among today’s millennials and Gen Zs.

With many getting pay cuts or losing their job, learning to manage personal finances is important now more than ever and is a large part of adulting.

Here are a few things young adults should ponder on and start doing even while in quarantine:

Learn budgeting

Now is a good time to start a budget. Apply the 50-30-20 rule. Allocate 50 percent of income to basic necessities, 30 percent to leisure and 20 percent to financial goals. Take note of billing due dates and pay on time. Use an Excel spreadsheet, an app or even a pen and paper to keep track of expenses.

Look for ways to reduce monthly expenses. Whether that’s subscribing to only one streaming service, downgrading mobile postpaid plan or switching to prepaid, or unplugging devices when not in use, the savings from these can go a long way toward improving one’s overall personal financial health.

Financing options such as the Toyota Financial Services’ Balloon Payment Plus makes car ownership easier with lower down payment and monthly terms already inclusive of periodic maintenance services. Such packages make spending lighter on the monthly budget, with guaranteed great resale value options by the end of the term.

Spend wisely

The pandemic has made everyone’s future a little uncertain so it’s best to be cautious with spending. Distinguish between wants and needs. This applies to the 100 items in one’s online shopping cart. Think long and hard before hitting that check out button.

When grocery shopping, assess the household’s current supplies and buy only enough for the whole family. Have a shopping list and stick to it as well.

Take advantage of cashbacks and rewards program. Plenty of companies nowadays offer cashback and rewards incentives for every purchase or for paying bills on time.

For big purchases, always go for value for money and explore available installment plans to make payments lighter on the pocket. One is sure to get their money’s worth with the Toyota Vios not only for being a quality and durable car but also for its added value benefits such as free periodic maintenance service (PMS), extended warranty or free car insurance. Worried about shelling out a lot money? With Toyota’s myriad of available financing solutions from low down payment schemes to discounts, owning the Vios is made as affordable as possible.

Start or keep investing

There are many forms of investment one can explore even while young and in quarantine.

Building and diversifying a financial investment portfolio is a good idea for young adults. With retirement decades away, not only is there more time to learn and recover from possible losses, investing can also help one achieve financial freedom earlier.

With work from home and less socializing still the norm, another investment worth considering is learning. Take up a new language. Read more books. Enroll in an online certification course. Investing in education is a great way to help increase one’s personal development and professional value.

Some big-ticket items are also worth investing in during this period. With persisting limited transportation options due to quarantine restrictions, having a car can provide more flexible mobility when traveling to work or the grocery store or running errands since there’s no need to queue in line while waiting for a ride. More importantly, Gen Zs and millennials can reduce their exposure to the virus by driving their own car. Experts advise to be at least 6 feet away from people, but with public transportation, this may be more challenging to follow.

The Toyota Vios has an extensive variant lineup to suit the needs of every Filipino, including first-time car owners.

An excellent investment for first-time car owners looking for a safe and reliable mode of transportation, the Toyota Vios delivers performance that levels up the lifestyle. Recently named as the Most Reliable Car Brand for 2020, Toyota offers more than what meets the eye.

With an array of variants to choose from, the Toyota Vios is easy to maintain, has a spacious interior and boasts an impressive engine performance that provides a driving experience that can withstand the knocks of daily errands. Depending on one’s goals, one can avail of the XE variant for that everyday practical car or grab the recently launched Toyota Vios GR-S that comes with a track-ready aesthetic – both in its interior and exterior. If along the line one is considering to upgrade, a Toyota vehicle has an impressive resale value – truly a bang for one’s buck.

The Toyota Vios is a reliable and durable vehicle that can address the mobility needs of every millennial and Gen Z.

The Toyota Vios is proudly assembled by Filipino automotive makers in the Philippines. By choosing the Toyota Vios, one not only enjoys the perks of having a dependable car but also helps support the livelihood of fellow Filipinos working in the local automotive industry.

With enough patience and determination, one will get the hang of adulting with money and build a better, more secure future.

To know more about the Toyota Vios, please visit Toyota Motors Philippines’ website at https://toyota.com.ph/vios or explore the Toyota Virtual Showroom. To get real-time updates, follow Toyota on Facebook and Instagram.