Airbnb News

Just about every travel company — Sonder included — wants more direct bookings because of the lower costs and chance to build customer relationships. Still, Sonder may be at a growth stage where adding distribution channels can be an important hedge against over-reliance on the bigger ones.

In Skift's top stories this week, money from Airbnb bookings meant to support Ukraine is often going to hosts outside of the country, several hotel giants freeze development plans in Russia, and United Airlines is worried about the prospect of higher oil prices.

This North Carolina boutique property is bringing in retail partnerships to help it stand out from the crowd as more hotels start competing for the return of incentive and retreat bookings.

Another hotel group enters the luxury home rental fray, but Mandarin Oriental is putting its properties through a rigorous brand standard ringer before guests have an opportunity to book.

The STR industry in APAC is at a nascent stage with promising growth prospects. It is to be seen how the STR market matures to find its demand-supply equilibrium and market leaders.

Airbnb went deep while Booking Holdings went wide in terms of product development in 2021. Airbnb assuredly will get back to broadening its product line, if not in 2022, then later.

Good morning from Skift. It's Tuesday, March 8, in New York City. Here's what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Airbnb bookings in Ukraine are very well-intentioned and much of it may be going to hard-hit individual hosts. However, Airbnb doesn’t expressly identify professional hosts so a chunk of the funds may be unwittingly going to big property managers that aren’t even based in Ukraine.

Expedia Group stepped out of the pack and ceased offering travel to and from Russia because of Putin's invasion of Ukraine. The company doesn't have a ton of Russia-related business, so even if the move is more symbolic than anything else, it is an important statement.

Booking Holdings is a significantly more profitable company than Airbnb, which recovered from the pandemic faster, and likely has more upside, but that is certainly debatable.