Airbnb today unveiled the most significant development in its eight year history as it moves beyond accommodation with the launch of Trips.
Trips is a people-powered platform that gathers offers in three key areas: Experiences, Places and Homes and still not available but upcoming, Flights and Services. And all in one mobile app.
Having already transformed where people stay when they travel through people-powered hospitality, Airbnb is taking this same people-focused approach to the rest of the trip and, in doing so, providing a way for people to make money from their passions and interests.
“Until now, Airbnb has been about homes,” said Brian Chesky, Airbnb CEO. “Today, Airbnb is launching Trips, bringing together where you stay, what you do, and the people you meet all in one place. We want to make travel magical again by putting people back at the heart of every trip.”
From the hosts’ point of view, Airbnb has evolved from just a social platform where earning a little extra income from extra space in a home into a platform that also provides hosts a chance to make money from sharing passions, interests and cities. At least this says Airbnb, nothing to do with becoming a travel agency, but a place for people, even for travel professionals and local business to make money of what they are able to offer or organise.
Enhanced system for identity authentication and security
The launch of Trips comes with the introduction of a new identity authentication process that the Airbnb Experiences Community will be using.
This new identity authentication step is required for all Experiences users, and is also currently being tested for homes bookings.
Airbnb exolains that this enhanced identification requirements is aimed to make the Airbnb community stronger and reaffirm Airbnb’s ongoing commitment to authenticity, reliability, and security.
Under the new identification system, hosts and guests will be asked to scan an official government ID (for example a passport, or driving license) and then take a simple selfie. After the ID is authenticated, the ID and selfie will be reviewed to confirm that both pictures appear to match.
Trips also leverages Airbnb’s existing Trust & Safety measures including a 250+ person global 24/7 support team, secure payments, messaging, profiles & reviews, and a new $1 million liability insurance program for eligible Experience hosts.
Experiences
Through Experiences, Airbnb travellers will find handcrafted activities designed and led by local experts.
Trips launches with around 500 Experiences in 12 cities worldwide, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Detroit, Havana, London, Paris, Florence, Nairobi, Cape Town, Tokyo and Seoul. From today, budding hosts in those and a further 39 cities worldwide can request to list their Experience.
Some experiences available give travellers the chance to give something back to communities through non-profit organizations. This is the case in Detroit, for example, of Khali Sweeney provides an opportunity to go behind-the-scenes at his Downtown Boxing Gym that provides local children with an after-school program of healthy snacks, homework time, and boxing lessons.
From today, people in the following cities can request to list their Experience on Trips: Amsterdam, Athens, Bangkok, Barcelona, Beirut, Berlin, Boston, Buenos Aires, Buffalo (NY), Cape Town, Cartagena, Chicago, Detroit, Dubai, Dublin, Florence, Harlem, Havana, Ho Chi Minh City, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Mexico City, Miami, Moscow, Nairobi, Nashville, New Delhi, New Orleans, Oahu, Osaka, Paris, Portland, Prague, Provence, Queenstown, Reykjavik, Rio De Janeiro, Rome, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Seattle, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Tokyo,Toronto,Vancouver.
Places: Guidebooks, Meet ups and Audio walks
Places is the location for Airbnbb community to find and offer Guidebooks, Meet ups and Audio walks.
It offers an alternative to aggregated tourist lists that funnel people to the same places.
Through the Insider Guidebooks, cultural experts and neighborhood insiders recommend the hidden gems within their city.
At launch, 100 Insider Guidebooks will be available in six cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Havana, Nairobi, Detroit and Seoul. Airbnb advances that more are coming soon.
Places includes as well over one million individual recommendations worldwide from Airbnb’s home hosts, unveiling their favourite hidden gems in their neighborhoods.
A partnership with restaurant booking platform, Resy, will make it possible for people in future to book tables at great local restaurants directly through the Airbnb app.
Meet ups within Places will let local businesses host one-off or regular events for Airbnb guests and locals to connect with each other.
Airbnb has also struck an exclusive partnership with Detour to offer access to amazing experiential audio walking tours allowing people to discover neighborhoods in a totally unique and authentic way. At launch, audio tours will initially be available for Los Angeles with San Francisco, Paris, London, Tokyo and Seoul to follow by Spring 2017.
Homes
Airbnb currently offers 3 million homes accross 191 countries to book. Now they are available to book alongside Experiences in the cities where they are available.
And more to come
The Trip Itinerary is a new feature that brings together everything the traveler needs to know into one simple timeline, with the ability to easily book and add Experiences or things to do. Over time, this capability will evolve based on machine learning to dynamically suggest personalized and contextual, i.e. based on location, recommendations during a trip.
Image over the headline.- Brian Chesky (CEO) Airbnb) presenting Trips on 18th November at Airbnb OPEN 2016. © Airbnb.
