Airbnb Expands to Hotels

Airbnb Expands to Hotels

Airbnb was started in 2008 and is an online marketplace for people who are looking to rent temporary short-term housing. The places that people rent were usually owned by ordinary people who either lived there or allowed others to rent the place. Most people use this app to find nice places to stay for vacation or to host their private parties. It served as an alternative to booking hotels or motels. I personally have used this app/website to book a place for my private party. It allows me to see what kind of accommodations are offered, what activities there are to do around the area, information/ratings on the host, and reviews about the place. This site also allows hosts to leave reviews on the guests that are staying there for future hosts to see if they approve of the guests. Airbnb recently has made the jump to add hotels and luxury listings as places potential guests can book.

Using a service called Plus, Airbnb will be evaluating homes in terms of comfort, accessibility, design, etc. in order to certify them as well as their hosts for future guests. As Airbnb branches out to this new frontier, they will be competing with hotel booking sites like Expedia or Hotel.com. These sites offer loyalty rewards and special bonuses/discounts to those who continually return to their website to book a hotel. Airbnb has answered by rewarded their highest rated hosts, known as Superhosts, with better customer support as well as discounted goods to furnish their homes. Superguests, a new loyalty program, gives guests free nights or other discounts to best rated guests. This gets me excited because Airbnb will definitely try to offer lower booking prices as well as better rewards for returning members. Maybe Airbnb will finally get credited for their advances and hotels will open up more partnerships with them, making traveling and booking less stressful and more enjoyable. Airbnb hopes to reach 1 billion yearly bookings by 2028 and it has booked over 300 million in total over the last 10 years.

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