Airbnb reaches seven out of ten properties available for instant booking

Airbnb has moved a considerable distance in its bid to give guests the ability to secure a place to stay without waiting for host approval.

The company says it now has 70% of all its listings available for instant booking.

This is a sizeable jump from 2016, when just one in three of its properties could be secured straight away.

The increase could be, in part, due to the addition of traditional hotel properties over the course of the last 12 months (announced by way of a distribution pact with SiteMinder in early-2018), where the majority of properties have instant booking.

Hosts will still be given the option to accept instant booking or not (a free service for owners), with some still wishing to enter into a dialogue with potential guests before allowing a booking to be made.

The company's decision to release the figure should be considered against the obvious backdrop of its self-proclaimed battle with online travel agencies - with Booking.com, for example, having 100% of its properties available for reservation immediately.

Airbnb says it currently has six million listings on the service, featured in 10,000 cities worldwide.

In particular, instant booking is being pushed as part of its ongoing strategy to attract more business travelers to the service.

The company believes this also helps those traveling on business to secure accommodation at the last minute.

It claims to be helping "manage" the travel of 400,000 companies around the world.

The company says: "As we work to build an end-to-end travel platform, we want to serve every guest, and make booking an Airbnb listing quick and easy."

* Check out this interview with Airbnb For Work's David Holyoke at The Phocuswright Conference 2018.