Renting an apartment is about to be so 2015.
Airbnb just unveiled big news for world travelers and fans of the app – the company doesn’t just want to be your rental concierge, it aims to be your travel agent too.
In what was¬ the biggest announcement in the company’s eight-year history, today CEO Brian Chesky unveiled Trips, a bundle of enticing new Airbnb features designed to make travel easier and more meaningful for all of the platform’s users.
At Airbnb’s Open event in Los Angeles, the new Trips feature launched with a preview of new Experiences, Places and Homes with a promise for Flights and Services features to come soon.
Experiences will allow hosts to share their hobbies and passions with users by offering them a chance to book an immersive multi-day activity, like a mountain hike under the stars or a morning bike ride, or a single event like a ballet class in Detroit or a couture gown-making experience in L.A. Trips launched with close to 500 experiences in over 12 cities worldwide and Chesky promises they’ll unveil even more in the months to come.
For travelers seeking authentic advice on which nearby hotspots to visit and how to live like a local, Places, offers users an opportunity to browse over one million activity recommendations from hosts and carefully curated Insider Guidebooks. Through a new partnership with Detour, Airbnb users can now listen to experiential audio walking tours of cities like Tokyo, London, Paris and San Francisco with lots more coming soon in 2017.
Are international meet ups with other solo travelers more your style? The new Meet Ups functionality will connect nearby Airbnb users all over the world to encourage community and spawn one-of-a-kind travel moments.