As part of a wider app update, Airbnb on Tuesday has introduced a new feature that allows travelers to book services and experiences, such as obtaining a massage, haircut or a meal prepared by chef or taking some activities. These new offers can be added to your stay, but they can also be booked independently, says Airbnb.
For example, you can book a tour in a city where you traveled, but where you chose to stay elsewhere, the company suggests.
This is not the first time that Airbnb has tried such a feature: he paused a previous version of the experiences in 2023 to improve his offer as a residence core. Now the company once again wants that customers go beyond planning a trip.
The move aims to capitalize on the Traffic Airbnb website that it already receives. During the call of the first quarter of Airbnb, CEO Brian Chesky said that his service has been accessible from over 1.5 billion devices in the last year, but stressed that many people come on the site and do not book a house.
It also brings Airbnb more directly into competition with other travel companies such as Tripadvisor, Booking.com, Viator and GetyourGuide and service providers such as Yelp.
Initially, Airbnb allows you to book services in 10 categories, including chefs, catering, prepared meals, photography, massages, spa treatment, personal training, hair, nails and makeup. The services will be offered in 100 cities all over the world in eight countries.
While users can take advantage of the services in which they stay, generally will have to travel on an office for experiences.
Initially, the experiences will include cultural and museum tours; Outdoor experiences, Watersport and wildlife; Food tours and cooking lessons; Artistic seminars and purchasing experiences; and training, well -being and beauty experiences. The company is launching experiences in 19 categories in 1,000 cities of the world.
Airbnb is also launching exclusive experiences on its platform called Airbnb Originals, which involves celebrities. These include things like the pastry shop at the French Bastards Bakery with chef Raphalle Elbaz or play beach volleyball with the Olympic Carolina Solberg on the beach of Leblon di Rio.
“These experiences and services are a way to experiment with a city like a place. We think these are natural extensions at home (stays). The fantastic thing of Airbnb is that you have unique accommodation that you cannot find anywhere else. Let’s think about our new offers in the same way”, Judson Coplan, vice -president of the marketing of Airbnb products, said to Techcrunch.
Coplan believes that Airbnb’s experiences can inspire people to travel and make a trip they could not have thought of. In addition, think that new offers can lead to people who discover new things to do in their city.
Airbnb will take a 15% cut from services and a 20% cut from experiences. However, users will only see a price when looking for a category. The company states that hosts in these categories pass through verification and quality controls that include their experience, online presence, education and required licenses.
The new Airbnb app adds a social game
The addition of services and experiences is part of a wider update of the app in which both guest and host apps will be renewed to host the new categories, among other changes.
Guests will be able to explore and book the categories of stay, services and experiences. And, if travelers already have an incoming journey, the app will suggest related experiences or services. On the other hand, the hosts will have a calendar and lists that help them manage reservations and offers.
Airbnb is also preparing to implement social functionality by the end of the year.
The app today has a group messaging function for travel planning, but plans to add a group chat function for people who have had an experience together. In this way, they can talk about the experience, share photos and videos or formulate advice for another trip.
In turn, Airbnb hopes that this can induce people to want to travel more and use his platform to do it.
The company says that it is developing privacy features around these social connections to create a safe experience for users.
Social features follow the launch of last year of an updated profile page, which allowed users to describe more on themselves, including where they live, languages that speak and other facts on themselves.
Coplan said that after this release, the number of profiles completed on the platform increased by 15x.
“There was a huge increase in a number of people who wanted to share more on themselves. For us, it was a clue that the journey is something about connections,” he explained. “Whether it’s your guest, people with whom you travel or the people you meet along the way. There is above all, at this moment, the desire to connect with other people.”
Reduction of customer service with AI
Mirroring’s comments made by Chesky, Coplan have noticed how Airbnb is using the IA to provide customer service and how, over time, its artificial intelligence assistant will become a door that can manage the planning and inspiration for the trip.
At the beginning of this month, Chesky introduced the agent of customer service powered by Airbnb. Unlike the previous version of the bot, which has redirected users to a supportive article, the assistant now provides an answer within the chat.
The bot is initially available for English -speaking users in the United States and will be completely launched from the end of the month in this market. By the end of the year, the function will become available for several countries and languages, he told Techcrunch Coplan.
Over time, it says that Airbnb will add more features to its artificial intelligence assistant, including customized responses tailored to your trip and booking and action buttons in line to undertake quick actions, such as the cancellation of a booking.
The updated Airbnb website and iOS and Android apps are launching all users globally starting today.
