Airbnb’s Bed-and-Breakfast Deal Highlights Its Bigger Ambitions in Accommodations
Photo Credit: Move by move, Airbnb is entering into the traditional hospitality space, and this latest partnership is part of a larger strategy to expand and evolve its business. Airbnb
Skift Take
Expedia and Priceline, watch out. Airbnb is very obviously coming for you. Today, it's bed-and-breakfasts. Tomorrow, it'll be more boutique and independent hotels.
Airbnb isn't interested, at least for the moment, in putting "mass-produced" hotel rooms on its platform, but it is expanding its accommodation choices through a new partnership.
The company has partnered with the Association of Independent Hospitality Professionals and ThinkReservations to make it easier for bed-and-breakfast owners to advertise their rooms on Airbnb, a sign of the company's bigger ambitions to grow its already large portfolio of more than 4 million listings worldwide.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has hinted that he sees more professionally managed properties joining the Airbnb community in the years to come. On November 29, during Airbnb's first Global Host Q&A session, he answered a litany of questions from thousands of Airbnb hosts around the world. The very first question in the hour-long session, in fact, perfectly aligned with the company's news about ThinkReservations today.
Chesky was asked why Airbnb is allowing commercial property agents on its si
