Airbnb Luxe and Plus: What It Takes to Qualify in 2026

Airbnb Luxe properties rent in the four figures a night — Airbnb launched the tier at a $1,000-a-night floor, with its first homes averaging $1,500 to $2,000. That number is why so many owners ask how to qualify. What they ask less often is whether their property is actually a candidate, how the process really runs, and whether a badge is even the fastest route to those rates.

This guide answers all three, with one advantage over most of what's online: it's current. The luxury-badge landscape changed, and a lot of older guides are quietly wrong now. Airbnb Plus — the inspected mid-tier everyone used to chase — has been discontinued. The badges that matter in 2026 are Guest Favorites, which you earn automatically, and Airbnb Luxe, the curated top of the platform. We'll cover what each one takes, show you what acceptance into Luxe actually looks like, and give you a printable checklist and a self-assessment you can run on your own property.

The Landscape

The three tiers, and where each one stands now

Before you spend a dollar chasing a badge, it helps to know which badges still exist and what each one signals. Here's the current state of play.

A Necessary Correction

What happened to Airbnb Plus

Airbnb Plus launched in 2018 as a curated tier of homes that had passed an in-person inspection — a middle ground between a standard listing and full luxury. For a few years it was the badge hosts optimized toward, and it's still the thing people ask us about most. So let's be clear: Airbnb has discontinued Plus and no longer onboards new Plus homes. Its quality signals were folded into the wider platform, most visibly into Guest Favorites.

That matters for two reasons. First, if you've been preparing to "apply for Plus," you're preparing for a door that's closed — redirect that energy toward Guest Favorites and, if the property warrants it, Luxe. Second, everything Plus used to inspect for — consistency, real maintenance, a fully equipped kitchen, hotel-grade linens — didn't stop mattering. It just stopped being its own badge. Those standards now show up in your reviews, and your reviews are what earn the badges that replaced Plus.

We've kept the Plus name in this guide because it's still what people search for, and because the standard it represented is exactly the standard you need to clear for what came next. If you earned a Plus badge before the wind-down, it isn't a live program you can lean on anymore — treat your reviews and your Guest Favorite status as the signals that carry weight today.

The Badge You Can Actually Earn

Guest Favorites: how the everyday quality badge works

Airbnb introduced Guest Favorites in late 2023 — a collection of the two million most-loved homes on the platform, drawn from ratings and reviews across hundreds of millions of trips. Unlike Plus, there is no inspection and no application. The badge is awarded — and removed — automatically.

What the algorithm weighs, in Airbnb's own framing: a strong overall rating (the badge skews toward homes averaging well above 4.9 stars), consistently high marks on check-in, cleanliness, accuracy, communication, location, and value, and a reliability record — host cancellations and quality-related service issues need to sit near the bottom of the range, around 1% on average. Guests can filter search for Guest Favorites, and the badge shows on the listing and in results.

For most hosts, this is the first badge worth engineering toward, and it's the real prerequisite for everything above it. The blunt version: if your property can't hold Guest Favorites status, it isn't a candidate for Luxe. And if it holds the badge comfortably at rates near the top of your market, that track record is exactly what makes the rest of this guide worth reading.

The Top Tier

Airbnb Luxe: what it actually is

Airbnb Luxe is a different category, not a higher grade of Plus. It grew out of Airbnb's 2017 acquisition of Luxury Retreats and launched as "Luxe" in 2019, consolidating Airbnb's earlier luxury efforts into a single curated tier. Every Luxe home is vetted across more than 300 criteria spanning both design and function — a bar closer to a five-star villa operation than a vacation rental.

Three things define it:

• Architectural distinction and professional design. These are estates, villas, penthouses, and singular homes — entire places, professionally designed, with hotel-quality everything and impeccable upkeep. Airbnb positions Luxe as a small fraction of its overall inventory.
• A dedicated trip designer on every booking. This is the part that separates Luxe from "an expensive listing." Airbnb assigns each Luxe reservation a dedicated, highly trained trip designer with 24/7 access, who tailors the stay end to end — arranging private chefs, in-home massage, childcare, personal training, transfers, and the rest. As a host, you operate alongside that layer.
• Four-figure nightly rates. Airbnb launched Luxe at a $1,000-per-night floor, and its first wave of roughly 2,000 homes rented for an average of $1,500 to $2,000 a night. Many sit far above that.

What ties those together is that Luxe is an operational commitment, not just a design one. A stunning house isn't enough if you can't reliably answer a trip designer's request on a Friday night or line up a private chef in a market where the good ones book weeks out. Owners who succeed at Luxe treat it like running a very small luxury hotel: a local team or manager on call, tight vendor relationships, and the patience for guests who expect a great deal for what they pay.

The Real Process

How you actually get into Luxe

Here's where most guides are dated. The old line is that Luxe is "invitation-only," curated in secret by Airbnb's luxury team. That's no longer the whole story. Today there are two doors, and one of them is open to you directly.

• Invitation. Airbnb still scouts. If your home is performing at the top of a market its luxury team cares about — near-perfect ratings, the highest rates in the area — you may get contacted through your host inbox.
• Self-nomination. You can also nominate your own listing for Luxe directly. You don't have to wait to be found; you can raise your hand.

From either door, the path is the same, and it's more hands-on than people expect:

• A walkthrough by a local Home Consultant. Airbnb sends an independent, local consultant to evaluate the home in person — working through a checklist on a mobile app, assessing design, furnishings, and amenities, and photographing key features. This is the moment the 300+ criteria get applied to your actual rooms.
• Professional photography. As part of onboarding, Airbnb arranges professional photography where it's needed, so the listing presents at the tier's standard.
• The Luxe badge goes live. Once a property is accepted, the Luxe badge is typically applied to the listing within about seven to ten days. Your listing stays live and bookable throughout — nothing goes dark while you wait.

The through-line: qualification is downstream of the property, not the paperwork. Make the home undeniable — the design, the reviews, the service layer — and either door opens. Nominate an average property and you've added your name to a long list. The nomination is easy; clearing the walkthrough is the work.

What Acceptance Looks Like

The "you're in" moment — and why it's quieter than you'd think

People picture a confetti screen: a big Congratulations, you're Airbnb Luxe! banner, the way Superhost feels. The reality is more understated, and it's worth setting expectations plainly. There is no splashy in-app celebration for Luxe. Acceptance is a private, high-touch onboarding run over email by Airbnb's Luxe onboarding team. They coordinate the walkthrough, set the listing live at the tier, and confirm by email — and the visible reward is the Luxe badge appearing on your listing, usually within about seven to ten days.

So the real picture of "how it looks when Airbnb grants you Luxe status" is two things: an email from the onboarding team, and a badge on your live listing. Here's an illustration of both.

For contrast, here's how the other two moments feel, so you know what you're comparing against:

• Superhost is assessed quarterly. You get an email with your stats — guests hosted, cancellation rate, rating, response rate — and you can watch your progress in the app under Hosting. The badge applies automatically, sometimes within a week.
• Guest Favorite has no acceptance moment at all. The badge simply appears on qualifying listings and updates on its own as your reviews and reliability move.
• Luxe is the white-glove version: a real human onboarding team, an email, and a badge that follows. Quiet, but it comes with a service apparatus the others don't.

If you've been accepted and have the real onboarding message or badge on your listing, that's the genuine article — the panels above are only an illustration of what to expect.

Clearing the Air

Three myths worth dropping

A lot of the advice still circulating about Airbnb's luxury tiers is a few years out of date. Before you plan around any of it, drop these:

• "Aim for Airbnb Plus." Plus is retired. Airbnb no longer onboards new Plus homes, so any plan built around a Plus application is built around a closed door. Aim at Guest Favorites and, if the home warrants it, Luxe.
• "Luxe is invitation-only." Not anymore. Airbnb still invites strong candidates, but there's now a self-nomination path — you can put your own listing forward without waiting to be discovered.
• "You can pay your way in." You can't. There's no fee to be considered and no package to buy; it's a curation backed by an in-person walkthrough. Airbnb even arranges professional photography as part of onboarding. Spending money helps only insofar as it gets the property to the standard the walkthrough checks.

The Standard

What the walkthrough is really checking

The full criteria list isn't public, and it changes. But the shape of it is consistent, and it maps cleanly onto the rooms of your home. Consistency is the watchword — reviewers are trained to notice the drop-off, the one room that got the leftover furniture, the second bathroom that never got the attention the primary did. Walk your property the way a Home Consultant would, room by room.

The kitchen

A half-stocked kitchen is one of the most common reasons a beautiful home still reads as unfinished. At this tier that means matching cookware in good condition, a real knife set, professional-grade appliances that all work, and enough dishware and glassware for a full house. It should look and function like somewhere a private chef could actually cook.

Bathrooms and bedrooms

Bathrooms are where deferred upkeep shows first: clean grout, no mildew, strong water pressure, working fixtures, matching towels folded consistently, and thoughtful basics like a good hair dryer and quality toiletries. Bedrooms are held to a hotel standard — hotel-quality linens in matching sets, comfortable mattresses, blackout capability, real storage — and crucially, every bedroom, not just the primary suite. The spare room is exactly where a strong property loses points.

Service, not just square footage

This is the part owners underestimate. Luxe is a service product. Beyond the trip designer Airbnb assigns, the property is expected to support or arrange the extras high-end guests assume: grocery pre-stocking, airport transfers, private-chef dinners, housekeeping cadence that never lets the standard slip between stays. If you can't offer or reliably arrange those, an exceptional building will still underperform in the tier.

The Guest Side

What a Luxe guest actually expects

It's easier to hold the standard once you understand who you're holding it for. A guest paying four figures a night through Luxe isn't comparing you to other rentals — they're comparing you to a five-star hotel, minus the front desk and plus a whole house. That reframes the whole job.

Three expectations sit underneath almost every Luxe review:

• Anticipation, not reaction. The chilled water on arrival, the fridge already stocked to the preferences they mentioned, the beach gear waiting by the door. The trip designer sets a lot of this up, but it lands at your property, so your operation has to execute it without being asked twice.
• The listing was the floor, not the ceiling. At this tier, guests expect the home to meet the photos exactly and then exceed them in person. A gap between the images and the reality — a tired sofa the wide shot hid, a pool that photographs bluer than it is — reads as a broken promise, and it shows up in the review that follows.
• Discretion and calm. High-end guests want service that's present when needed and invisible otherwise. Fast, warm, unobtrusive communication; problems solved before they become complaints; privacy respected completely. The properties that win at this tier feel effortless precisely because someone did a lot of unseen work to make them feel that way.

None of this is exotic — it's hospitality done to a standard most rentals never reach. But it's the difference between a home that holds a four-figure rate and one that merely asks for it.

The Gut Check

Is your property even a candidate?

Before you invest a cent in upgrades or a nomination, run down this list. The most expensive version of this process is the one where you spend on a tier your property was never realistically going to hold. If you're hesitating on more than a couple of these, your energy is better spent on positioning than on chasing a badge.

Rather than eyeball it, score it. Answer the ten questions below and get a straight read on where your property stands.

Whatever your score, the way through is the same: a room-by-room pass against the standard. We've turned this guide into a printable checklist — 84 checkpoints across eleven sections, from the ratings floor to the concierge layer.

The Revenue Reality

What the numbers actually look like

The rate premium is real, but the occupancy picture is different, and it's worth understanding what you're optimizing for. Airbnb launched Luxe at a $1,000-a-night floor; its launch homes averaged $1,500 to $2,000, and plenty run well beyond that. You'll also see "3–5x the market average" repeated widely — treat that as a ballpark estimate, not a guarantee, since the multiples different sources cite vary a lot and none trace cleanly to Airbnb.

The trade-off is volume. Luxe guests are fewer and highly selective, so these homes generally run at lower occupancy than a well-run standard listing. The math still works — a four-figure nightly rate at moderate occupancy can outperform a mid-market home running full — but you're winning on rate, not on nights booked. If your business needs steady year-round volume, that's a real consideration before you chase the tier.

Getting Ready

What it costs to get ready

Neither badge charges you to be considered. The cost is readiness, and it's the part hosts most often underestimate. Think of it in three buckets — and note that these are directional ranges to frame your planning, not quotes.

Design and furnishings tend to be the biggest line. If the property is close and just needs consistency work — swapping the mismatched room, upgrading linens and cookware, replacing tired pieces — you might be looking at a few thousand dollars. If it needs a real design pass to reach a coherent, distinctive look, professional interior design plus furnishings can run well into five figures for a larger, Luxe-caliber home.

Photography is the single highest-leverage spend once the home looks the part — and here's a genuine perk of the Luxe route: Airbnb arranges professional photography as part of onboarding. That doesn't let you off the hook for standard listings and your own channels, where a professional shoot is the investment I'd make first, not last. It pays back regardless of whether a badge ever comes through.

Maintenance and small upgrades — refinishing floors, touch-up paint, fixing fixtures, deep-cleaning grout — are easy to overlook and add up quietly. Budget for a full punch-list pass, because these are precisely the details that fail a walkthrough.

Set against the upside the arithmetic can absolutely work, but treat the readiness spend as an investment in your property's positioning that stands on its own. A beautifully photographed, well-finished home earns a premium whether or not the platform ever hands you a badge.

The Calendar

How long it really takes

Set expectations on the calendar, not just the checklist. The good news: once a property is accepted into Luxe, the badge typically lands within about seven to ten days, and your listing keeps earning the whole time. The long part is everything before acceptance.

Readiness moves at the speed of your slowest vendor. Ordering furniture, scheduling a design pass, and getting maintenance done can eat a month or two before you nominate. Then there's the walkthrough to schedule and pass. The practical takeaway is not to time this against a hard deadline — don't gut the property mid-year assuming it'll be back at the top of the market by peak season. Do the readiness work during a slower stretch, keep earning at your current tier while you wait, and treat the badge as a bonus that lands when it lands. A realistic mental model: budget one to three months to get the property genuinely ready, a few weeks to schedule and pass the walkthrough, then the seven-to-ten-day badge window on top. The homes that move fastest are the ones that were already operating at the standard before anyone asked them to prove it.

Where Properties Slip

Common failure points — and how to fix them

The Wider Field

Luxe vs. the alternatives

Premium positioning isn't exclusive to Airbnb's badges, and the smart play is usually to be on more than one curated channel. A home that clears Luxe has almost certainly cleared what the others ask. Here's how the main routes compare, including the one you fully control.

The broader point: a well-positioned home with strong branding, professional photography, and a direct booking channel can command premium rates independent of any platform's badge — and it's the only channel where you keep the guest relationship. Curated tiers are worth pursuing; just don't let a badge become the whole strategy. For more on that, see how to market an Airbnb Luxe property and the anatomy of an ultra-luxury listing.

The Bottom Line

So, is it worth pursuing?

Guest Favorites is worth engineering toward for any property that can hold it — it's the badge with the widest reach and the one guests actively filter for. Airbnb Luxe is worth pursuing for genuinely exceptional homes whose owners are committed to running them like a small luxury hotel, service layer and all. For everyone in between, the better question isn't "how do I qualify?" but "how do I build a premium brand that doesn't depend on a badge to justify its rate?" — because that brand pays you whether or not the badge ever arrives.

Wherever you land, the path starts the same way: design, photography, and positioning first. Run the Luxe-Ready Checklist on your property, be straight about the score, and fix the room that's dragging the rest down.

Frequently Asked Questions

Airbnb Luxe & Plus, answered