As part of a comprehensive app update, AirbNB introduced a new feature on Tuesday, which allows passengers to book services and experiences, such as massage, haircuts, or getting chef-taiyar food, or participating in some activity. AirBNB says that these new offerings can be added to your stay, but they can also be booked independently.
For example, you can book a tour in the city you have traveled, but where you have chosen to live elsewhere, the company suggests.
This is not the first time AirbnB has tried such a facility – It stopped the first version of experiences in 2023 To improve your main offer of stay. Now the company once again wants the customer to go beyond planning a trip.
This step is to capitalize on traffic airbnb’s site. During the Q1 2025 calls of AirbNB, CEO Brian Chesky said that its service was accessed by more than 1.5 billion equipment in the last year, but said that many people come to the site and do not book the house.
This brings Airbnb in competition with service providers such as Tripadvisor, Booking.com, Viator, and GETYURGUDE, and YELP.
Initially, airbnb allows you to book services in 10 categories including chefs, catering, prepared food, photography, massage, spa treatment, personal training, hair, nails and makeup. Services will be offered in 100 cities worldwide in eight countries.
While users can take advantage of services where they are living, they will usually have to travel to a place for experiences.
Initially, experiences will include cultural and museum tourism; Outdoor, watersport and wildlife experience; Food tourism and cooking classes; Art workshops and shopping experiences; And exercise, welfare and beauty experience. The company is starting experience in 19 categories in 1,000 cities of the world.
Airbnb is also initiated a special experience called airbnb original on its platform, including celebrity participation. These include things such as making pastries in French Bastards Bakery with Chef Rafael Albaz, or playing beach volleyball with Olympian Carolina Solberg on Lablon Beach of Rio.
“These experiences and services are a way to experience a city like a local. We feel that these are natural extensions for homes (Staps). What is great about AirbnB is that you get unique housing that you cannot find anywhere else. We think about our new offerings in the same way,” Judson Copan, “Judson Copan, VP, VP, a call from a call.
Coplan believes that airbnb experiences can motivate people to travel and travel a trip, which they would not have thought of. In addition, they feel that new offerings can search for new things to do people in their city.
AirbNB will cut 15% from services and cut 20% from experiences. However, users will either see a value when searching or booking a category. The company says that these categories will undergo host verification and quality checks including their experience, online attendance, education and necessary licenses.
AIRBNB’s new app adds a social play
In addition to services and experiences, a large app is part of updates, where among other changes, apps will be rebuilt for both guests and hosts to accommodate new categories.
Guests will be able to stay and book from living, services and experience categories. And, if the passengers already have an upcoming travel book, the app will suggest related experiences or services. At the other end, the host will have a calendar and listing functions that help them to book and manage the offerings.
AirbNB is also preparing to roll out social facilities later this year.
Today the app has a group messaging feature for trip planning, but it is planning to add a group chat feature for those who have experienced together. In this way, they can talk about experience, share photos and videos, or make recommendations for any other journey.
In turn, AirbnB hopes that it wants to travel more and use its platform to do so.
The company says that it is developing privacy features around these social connections to create a safe experience for users.
Social features follow the launch of an updated profile page of last year, which allowed users to describe more about themselves, in which they live, where they live, where they live, they speak languages, and other facts about themselves.
Coplan stated that after that release, the number of full profiles on the platform increased by 15X.
He said, “There was a huge increase in many people who wanted to share more about themselves. For us, it was a clue that there is something about travel connection,” he explained. “Whether it is your host, the people you travel, or the people you meet, especially, in this time, the desire to join with other people.”
Customer service scaling with AI
Mirroring the comments made by Chesky, Coplan said how the use of AirbnB AI is to provide customer service, and how, over time, its AI will become a conservatives that can handle the travel plan and inspiration.
Earlier this month, Chesky introduced AIRBNB’s AI-operated customer service agent. Unlike the previous version of the bot, which redirected users into a support article, the assistant now provides a reply within the chat.
Bot is initially available to English speaking users in the US and will roll out completely in this market by the end of the month. At the end of this year, this feature will be available to more countries and languages, Koplan told Techcrunch.
Over time, they say that airbnb will add more features to its AI assistant, including personal answers to your travel and booking, and in-line action buttons to take quick action such as cancellation of booking.
Update AirbNB website and iOS and Android apps are rolling out for all users starting today.
