Airbnb’s main business was to allow users to book a room or an entire property owned by someone else. In most cases, the host would be a house or property owner and you could stay with basic services such as bed, bath and kitchen. The company is now introducing hotels to its platform to increase revenue and offer travelers more options for booking accommodation.
The company has been testing hotel listings for a few months and officially adds a filter to search for them in his app. Initially, the travel technology company is partnering with boutique hotels in 20 cities, including New York, Paris, London, Madrid, Rome and Singapore.
Users will see a pop-up window to browse hotels if they are looking for one or two nights’ accommodation in a city. They can also choose to see only hotels by applying a specific filter to the search. Airbnb said it offers a price match guarantee and will refund the difference in app credits if you find the listing for a lower price elsewhere.
“There are some examples of types of trips that a hotel is probably best suited for, like last-minute bookings, overnight stays, and business trips. What we’ve done in the Airbnb app is that when we see that you’re looking for that type of accommodation, we can recommend hotels without sending you to another part of the app or hitting another tab on AirplanrC, Julunch, Junbd. call.
For Airbnb, this is also an opportunity to offer accommodation to travelers in places like New York and Singapore, where short-term stays are prohibited. This regulatory fix is no small thing: it effectively expands Airbnb’s addressable market to cities that had legislated it — some of the most valuable travel markets in the world.
Booking a property is only one part of the equation now for Airbnb. The company also wants users to book experiences and services, launched last year, during their trip as well. In recent months, the company has launched grocery delivery to properties and airport pickup services. With its summer launch, Airbnb is adding luggage storage to more than 15,000 locations. Additionally, it will launch car rental services this summer.
The moves reflect a broader convergence taking place in travel technologies: Uber, long a ride-hailing company, has expanded into hotel and travel bookings, while Airbnb is now moving substantially into transportation. Both companies seem to be aiming for the same destination – an app that owns the entire traveller’s journey.
As part of the experiences, the company is adding visits with local guides for 3,000 landmarks. It also adds more than 2,500 dining experiences to the mix. With these offers, Airbnb will try to better compete with Viator or GetYourGuide.
Airbnb is redesigning the app to accommodate all the different parts of accommodation, experiences and services. On the home page, users will see suggestions for all categories. But they can go to individual tabs and see a specific offer as well.
While the company isn’t launching any official rewards programs, it will begin offering Airbnb credits on your first car rental booking or up to 15% credit on hotel bookings. Having these credits can encourage people to use the app more, potentially testing the waters for a long-term loyalty program.
But, where is the AI?
Several travel companies have added itinerary builders or AI trip planning tools. Airbnb has stayed away from this trend. In his latest earnings call, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said that a chatbot as an interface is not suitable for travel.
“I think the way we think about AI is how it can be used to help people find what they’re looking for more effectively and efficiently. And you see with this release that we have AI scattered across a number of functions across the application on the guest side and on the host side,” Coplan said.
The company uses AI in some other tools. With this release, it will allow hosts to add their address and let the AI fill in details for easy listing creation. On the customer side, it introduces category tags such as location, amenities, and family-friendly that allow you to browse reviews associated with the tag.
The company is also adding a tool that compares properties on your wishlist and displays AI-generated summaries to give you information about the property you can choose.
The biggest area where Airbnb is applying artificial intelligence is customer service. It introduced the AI bot in the US last year and is now eyeing global expansion with support for 11 languages. Chesky said during the 2026 Q1 call that the chatbot handles 40% of its inquiries. Updated support will also have interactive cards, such as a way to update your trip or resolve other issues.
Airbnb said that later this year, it will start using a voice-based AI assistant that users can talk to in a call. He said he is working with several partners for this product, but did not specify any names.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This does not affect our editorial independence.
