Airbnb design specCommercial

A photography grid with almost invisible chrome, driven by the published DLS palette of warm named greys over a soft #222222 ink that is never pure black; the Rausch coral (now #FF385C, not the retired #FF5A5F) is disciplined to the wordmark and the search submit while the primary button stays near-black, the type scale is deliberately flat and small so photographs set the hierarchy, and the signature 32px segmented search pill sits on an elevation system where hairline and shadow are the same token.

Browse Airbnb in the interactive gallery

Captured from the live site's computed styles into a prompt-ready DESIGN.md you can paste into Cursor, v0, Lovable, Bolt or Claude Code. Below is a summary of each captured surface.

Marketing site

Source: airbnb.com (live DOM, computed styles + the published DLS --palette-* / --elevation-* token set), 2026-07-19. Coverage: signed-out home / search landing (AU locale). Logged-in trips and host surfaces not captured (needs login). Note: the brand coral is Rausch #FF385C, not the older #FF5A5F — the queue hint was out of date.

Visual Theme & Atmosphere

Airbnb's home page is a photography grid with almost invisible chrome. The canvas is white, the ink is a soft #222222 (never pure black), and the greys run a warm-neutral named ladder — foggy, bobo, deco, bebe, faint — that gives the interface its characteristically soft, unaggressive feel. Rausch coral #FF385C is used with real discipline: the wordmark and the search-submit circle, and essentially nothing else. The signature component is the search pill — an 850×66 fully-rounded bar (32px radius) split into Where / When / Who segments with a coral circular button on the end — which floats over a hairline-separated header. Type is Airbnb Cereal VF throughout, and notably *small*: listing titles run at 14/20 regular, so the photographs, not the text, set the hierarchy. Feels: soft, warm, photographic, unfussy.

Color Palette & Roles

Named brand palette (DLS)

TokenHexRole / usage
palette-rausch#FF385CTHE brand coral — wordmark, search submit
palette-product-rausch#E00B41Product-surface variant
palette-hof#222222The ink ("House of Fun")
palette-black#000000Hover ink only
palette-foggy#6A6A6ASecondary text
palette-bobo#B0B0B0Tertiary
palette-deco#DDDDDDHairlines, disabled
palette-bebe#EBEBEBFaint fill
palette-faint#F7F7F7Hover / secondary background
palette-white#FFFFFFCanvas
palette-arches#C13515Error
palette-arches2#B32505Error deep
palette-arches12#FFF8F6Error wash
palette-capiz#F7F6F2Warm neutral wash
palette-hapuna#F5F1EAWarm sand wash
palette-spruce#008A05Success
palette-ondo#E07912Warning
palette-mykonou5#428BFFInfo blue
palette-plus#92174DAirbnb Plus sub-brand
palette-luxe#460479Luxe sub-brand

Text

TokenHex
text-primary#222222
text-primary-hover#000000
text-primary-inverse#FFFFFF
text-primary-disabled#DDDDDD
text-secondary#6C6C6C
text-secondary-disabled#DDDDDD
text-fill-disabled#C1C1C1
text-primary-error / secondary-error#C13515
text-*-error-hover#A3150F
text-legal#318CF7
text-link-disabled#929292
text-focused#3F3F3F
text-material-disabledrgba(0,0,0,0.24)

Backgrounds

bg-primary #FFFFFF · bg-primary-hover / -disabled / -selected #F7F7F7 · bg-primary-error #FFF5F3 · bg-primary-core #FF385C · bg-primary-plus #92174D · bg-primary-luxe #460479 · bg-secondary #F7F7F7 · bg-tertiary #8C8C8C · bg-tertiary-hover #6C6C6C · bg-tertiary-disabled #EBEBEB · bg-tertiary-core #DA1249

Borders

border-primary #222222 (hover #000000, disabled #DDDDDD, inverse #FFFFFF) · border-secondary #8C8C8C (hover/selected #222222, disabled #EBEBEB, error #C13515) · border-tertiary #DDDDDD (hover #000000, selected #222222, error #C13515 / hover #A3150F) · border-quarternary #8C8C8C

Rules. Rausch is for the wordmark and the search submit — it is not a general CTA colour, and the primary button is #222222. Every neutral is warm; #000000 appears only as a hover ink. The sub-brand colours (Plus, Luxe) never mix with the core surface.

Typography Rules

RoleSize/LineWeightTracking
Page h128/40.04700normal
Section h2 (feature)22/26500-0.44px
Footer h221/30.03700normal
Section h2 / listing title14/20.02400normal
UI label / h314/18500normal
Secondary meta14/20.02400normal (#6C6C6C)

Patterns: the scale is unusually flat and small — most of the page runs at 14px, and the largest routine role is 28px. Weight does the work instead: 400 for listing copy, 500 for UI labels, 700 for the few true headings. Tracking is normal everywhere except the one 22px feature heading (-0.44px). Sentence case throughout; no uppercase eyebrows.

Also documented in the full DESIGN.md: Component Stylings, Layout Principles, Depth & Elevation, Motion, Backgrounds, Effects & WebGL, Do's and Don'ts, Responsive Behavior, Agent Prompt Guide.