Just In Time For Holiday Travel, Airbnb Is Making It Easier To Split The Bill

Your New Year's Eve soiree is about to get a little bit easier...budget-wise, at least.

Airbnb has announced that it's adding a new feature that allows for a booking's cost to be split among a group. Conveniently called the Split Pay tool, it's the perfect feature to prevent the inevitable budgetary headache that comes with group travel.

Condé Nast Traveler reports that Split Pay was just one of the ideas that Airbnb considered after it sent out a survey to its users. According to the magazine, an easy way to split the payment was the most-requested feature and the service has been making it a top priority.

The move makes Airbnb the very first home-sharing service to offer an in-app way to divvy up the price. It's also making the Split Pay feature available in every country that it operates in, so even groups that include members from every corner of the globe can split a bill without having to go through Venmo or enduring an awkward money talk.

Airbnb explains that when a group initiates a Split Pay booking, the reservation is actually put on hold until the amount is paid in full. And the feature also lets anyone pay for a number of shares, so if one person is feeling particularly generous, they can opt to pay for more chunks of the total. Every member of the group gets a notification via email about the split payment and has 72 hours to pay. Otherwise, the reservation is canceled and anyone who did pay gets hit with a fee, getting back only a portion of what they contributed.

Anyone involved with the excursion can check on the outing's status in the Your Trips section of the app and even give anyone who hasn't paid up a virtual reminder, just in case.

The tool should make end-of-year getaways easier for everyone. CNT notes that New Year's Eve is the most popular day of the year for group travel, so Split Pay is giving everyone one less thing to worry about.

Choosing a destination, on the other hand, may be the hardest part about ringing in 2018.