Airbnb adds 31 new languages, includes Xhosa, Zulu and Swahili

13 Dec 2019

Hosts and guest of Airbnb can access its platform in Xhosa, Zulu and Swahili, alongside 28 additional languages. Now supporting 62 languages, the Airbnb platform is accessible to more than four billion native speakers. With these new languages, the company is working to bring economic opportunity to even more hosts, and making it easier for more guests to experience travel that is local, authentic and unique.

Image via Airbnb

"I am delighted that the Airbnb community can now access Airbnb in Xhosa, Zulu and Swahili. Home-sharing can help regular people create new economic opportunities for themselves in the homes and communities they live in, especially those who live in under-resourced areas. With Airbnb now supporting Xhosa and Zulu, I hope more potential hosts in some of South Africa’s biggest under-resourced areas consider the real economic opportunity of becoming a tourism entrepreneur," says Velma Corcoran, Airbnb’s country manager for South Africa.

In South Africa, there are more than 20,000 listings on the platform and home-sharing continues to bring a wealth of benefits to the local economy, tourism industry and communities. Recently released data by Airbnb shows that:

• More than 2 million guests have stayed in homes listed on Airbnb in South Africa since 2008

• In 2018 alone, the estimated direct economic impact of Airbnb in the country was more than R8.7 billion which would be the equivalent of 22,000 jobs across South Africa

Here are the 31 new languages now available on Airbnb:

1. Albanian (Albania)
2. Armenian (Armenia)
3. Azeri (Azerbaijan)
4. Bosnian (Bosnia)
5. Bulgarian (Bulgaria)
6. Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong SAR)
7. English (Australia)
8. English (Canada)
9. English (United Kingdom)
10. Estonian (Estonia)
11. French (Canada)
12. Georgian (Georgia)
13. Hindi (India)
14. Irish (Ireland)
15. Latvian (Latvia)
16. Lithuanian (Lithuania)
17. Macedonian (North Macedonia)
18. Maltese (Malta)
19. Montenegrin (Montenegro)
20. Romanian (Romania)
21. Serbian (Serbia)
22. Slovak (Slovakia)
23. Slovenian (Slovenia)
24. Spanish (Argentina)
25. Spanish (Latin America)
26. Swahili (Africa)
27. Tagalog (the Philippines)
28. Ukrainian (Ukraine)
29. Vietnamese (Vietnam)
30. Xhosa (South Africa)
31. Zulu (South Africa)