Airbnb News

To be honest, we weren't very surprised by Thursday's launches. In fact, we wondered why they haven't been launched sooner. But for the most part, all of them certainly seem in step with Airbnb's plans for being much more than just about any other travel brand or company out there.

This week in hospitality, the fact that it's earnings season is just the beginning. Airbnb is launching a new tier of select properties and Wyndham is selling its European vacation rental business.

HotelTonight made a smart move by expanding beyond last-minute bookings. So far, the company's willingness to tweak its product and roll with the punches is paying off with profitability.

You know the saying, "The more things change, the more they stay the same"? When it comes to Airbnb's new endeavors in the accommodations space, it is certainly being inventive, but the company is also borrowing heavily from what hotels have been doing for centuries.

Headlines can often miss a key point: Airbnb has a positive and growing cash flow. Airbnb was already in a small club of highly valued startups, but there's an even more elite group, those that can turn a profit.

Anyone willing to bet that you may find your favorite "mass-produced" hotel chains on Airbnb in the not-too-distant future?

There's nothing better than a travel CEO, like Filip Boyen of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, who isn't afraid to speak his mind.

As we've noted before, as much as hotels and online travel agencies may not necessarily love one another, they certainly need each other. Their current love-hate relationship will certainly change, however, if and when other players like Airbnb or Google become bigger players in the hotel booking space.

In Airbnb's battle of Silicon Valley versus Wall Street, it appears that Silicon Valley has won this fight — for now.

Airbnb has sold investors on a growth story based, in part, on adding flights and other products. But selling flights is extremely complicated.