After several stops and starts, Airbnb is once again trying to expand beyond short-term rentals: It said Tuesday it is relaunching its experiences product and debuting a services offering that adds hotel-style amenities like chefs and massage therapists.
Users will be able to book services in 10 categories: Chefs, photography, massage, spa treatments, personal training, hair, makeup, nails, prepared meals, and catering. It is launching in 260 cities, with more offerings and cities coming.
The updated experiences offering is relaunching in 650 cities. Examples include:
- A tour of the newly reopened Notre-Dame with Axelle Ponsonnet, an architect from the restoration team
- Ramen cooking class in Japan with Michelin-recognized chef Saburo Ishigōka
- The company is also introducing Airbnb Originals, curated experiences exclusive to the company: Baking lessons with French Bastards chef Raphaelle Elbaz; a beach volleyball game with Olympian Carol Solberg on Rio’s Leblon Beach, and hangouts with celebrities like Megan Thee Stallion and Patrick Mahomes.
‘Beyond the Core’
The new offerings are part of Airbnb’s long-term vision, said Airbnb CFO Ellie Mertz.
“If you think about where our vision has always been, it has been to, what we call, ‘Expand beyond the core’ — expand beyond accommodations,” Mertz said in an interview with Skift. “North of 70% of travelers say they are looking for something to do when they travel.”
Airbnb first launched experiences in 2016 and halted the offering during the pandemic. It resumed in 2022, but again paused in early 2023. The company started taking new applications last year.
Airbnb has emphasized that the Experiences and Services hosts have been heavily vetted this time around.
Services hosts are licensed and have an average of 10 years of experience, Airbnb said. And Experiences hosts are vetted for expertise and a connection to the local areas.
There’s an effort to hit all price points: Airbnb said the cheapest service is less than $50.
The company had a call out for hosts to kick off the new experiences and services. Additional hosts can apply through the app starting Tuesday. These hosts pay Airbnb roughly 20%, with some variance.
Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, discussed the long-term vision at the Skift Global Forum last September.
“Why would Airbnb just offer homes? Why couldn’t we offer significantly more things? And that’s the future of this company,” Chesky said.“I anticipate, every year, we launch two to three things that could eventually generate a billion dollars a year annually in revenue.”
Redesigned App
There is also a redesigned app that showcases all three offerings throughout.
The Explore tab now shows experiences and services options in addition to stays, with icons across the top. The app suggests specific offerings based on the user’s location and who the user is traveling with.
The Trips tab builds an itinerary based on bookings the user has made. “That, I think, is a hugely important component here. With this new app, we become a single destination to book all of these things and to begin to build your trip,” Mertz said. “This is a very material first step for us to bring the app in the direction of being a true travel concierge. You can see through this redesigned app that is the direction that we are headed.”
Does the emphasis on itineraries mean flight and rideshare bookings could be coming to Airbnb? “We’re not launching any of those this week. But you can imagine that these are not the only things that we are working on. And the intent is to further fill out that trip itinerary,” Mertz said.
Listing pages detail the host’s qualifications, offerings, and pricing. Booking an experience or service is similar to booking an accommodation. The messaging function now allows photo and video sharing, as well as integrated payment options for customizing services.
There’s more of a social media aspect, too, as the user profile has gained more prominence over the past year or so.
For group experiences, users can see who else has booked, as well as message the group or individual guests during and after the experience.
Financials
Airbnb plans to invest between $200 million and $250 million this year on Experiences and Services.
That covers the team that has been working for about nine months to build a supply for launch and scaling post-launch.
“The thinking is that 2025 is about launching, ensuring that we have product market fit, and iterating with the goal that we exit this year with a strong, scaled exit rate. And that in future years, these new businesses will continue to grow to meaningfully contribute to the top line,” Mertz said.
She said that the company doesn’t plan to break out financials for the new offerings in the near term, but it will provide reports to show how well the businesses are scaling. Airbnb has not disclosed the financials of the previous, but Skift has reported that the offering did not generate meaningful revenue.
“The expectation is that in 2025 this will not be a material driver of revenue growth, but as we scale in future years, it should be,” Mertz said.
