Do you book Airbnb? Already a major force in the vacation rental market and the accommodations sector, the company has announced a major expansion that includes big plays for luxury travel and, potentially, air travel. Let us know if you book the company, and what you think of the plan, in the following poll, and we’ll feature the results in a future story on www.travelagentcentral.com:
As part of a 10-year “roadmap” announced last week by Airbnb Co-Founder, CEO and Head of Community Brian Chesky, the company is making a big push into luxury travel with the addition of its Beyond by Airbnb tier, which builds on last year’s acquisition of Montreal-based luxury vacation rental company Luxury Retreats. Another new tier, Airbnb Plus, includes homes that have been verified by the company in person. As part of the roadmap, Airbnb is also launching a number of collections aimed at market niches like family travel, business travel, social stays, weddings, honeymoons, group getaways and dinner parties, and launching its own loyalty program, in competition with loyalty programs from major hotel companies.
In an interview following the announcement with the Sunday Times (registration required), Chesky also said that Airbnb has “seriously considered” expanding into aviation with the goal of becoming a “one-stop shop for travel.” In the interview Chesky compared the approach to that of another tech giant, Amazon, which has grown from an online book-selling business into a complete end-to-end retail experience.
This isn’t the first time the company has teased an expansion into air travel. As far back as December 2016, Bloomberg reported a rumor that the company was considering a move into flight bookings. That was just after the company launched its Trips platform, which marked its expansion beyond vacation rentals into broader, “Live Like a Local”-style vacation experiences.
Let us know what you think of booking with the company, and its latest plans.
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