So far, Airbnb has only been a platform for accommodations. But that should change: In the future, Airbnb also wants to sell services such as massages and experience excursions such as cooking courses. What is behind the idea.
The Airbnb accommodation platform wants to continue growing and relies on the business with services and experience trips. Customers can now also book masseurs, hair stylists as well as professional cooks or catering via the app. The experiences are about museum visits, riding excursions or cooking courses, for example. “Hotels have something we don't have: Services,” said Airbnb boss Brian Chesky: “Now we offer the best of both worlds – amazing houses with services that make you even more special.”
Tomaso Duso, Head of the Department of Companies and Markets at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), actually sees the chance that Airbnb is even more specific to compete with hotels. Opposite tagesschau.de He says: “Many travelers not only appreciate the room on hotels, but also services such as wellness offers or leisure activities. This integrated service experience has so far been missing from Airbnb.” With the new offers, Airbnb could now specifically reach a new audience – those people who usually book a hotel.
Amazon for Services
It could be a radical change for an app that has so far only been used one or a few times a year. Because the services and experiences are not tied to trips, as Chesky and co -founder Nate Blecharczyk emphasize. The declared goal is to achieve locals with the services. “Above all, we do this because we think that people want it and that there is no good platform for it so far,” said Chesky in the FAZ interview.
Initially, there should be services in ten different categories in 260 cities. These include offers from fitness trainers and photographers. The offer is to be expanded over time in more types of services. Chesky's vision: Airbnb could become a kind of Amazon for services. “But with some differences to Amazon. We are not about mass -produced goods, but about offers with higher profit margins,” he emphasizes in an interview with the FAZ.
Expert Duso considers the comparison with Amazon to be “ambitious”. “While Amazon works with physical products, services are much more complex in terms of quality and availability,” the expert told the expert tagesschau.de: “A marketplace for additional services around the trip could work, but is complicated. At least whether this can be scaled in the long term remains open.”
Goal: improve image?
In order to market the new offers in the best possible way, the Airbnb app was also converted to make them fit for the new offers beyond accommodation. For example, after booking an overnight stay, she will suggest services and experiences nearby. Airbnb claims to be a fee of 20 percent for experiences and 15 percent in terms of services from the providers. With the money, Airbnb pays the transaction costs for payments, customer service and insurance. The providers of services and experiences are not exclusively bound to the platform.
The opening of the business model could be a chance for Airbnb. Because the accommodation platform is criticized and has to struggle with allegations in various cities, the service contributes to the shortage of living space, since more apartments in a good location would be expensive to tourists. New York or Barcelona therefore proceed with strict regulations against the offers. With success: According to the company, the number of Airbnb accommodation has fallen by more than 90 percent since then. “With the expansion of additional services, the company could try to improve its image and to position itself wider,” said Tomaso Duso.
“Fewer regulatory Resistance”
With the services and experience excursions, Airbnb now hopes to open up an area that is not threatened by regulations: Airbnb boss Chesky expressed hope in the FAZ interview that the relationship with the cities will now be easier: “The services should encounter significantly less regulatory resistance.”
Especially since the company also relies on local service providers: “I think about [die Dienstleistungen] An entire economic ecosystem will be created around. Services are already a large part of the global economy, but they have not yet been aggregated as we do, “said Chesky in an interview with the FAZ.
Quality control becomes heavier
However, the new offers also result in risks for Airbnb – for example, with a significantly increasing number of offers, the quality also ensures, according to industry analyst Carolina Milanesi. At the same time, Airbnb advanced into areas in which specialized apps have already occupied their niches.
Tomaso Duso from the DIW also emphasizes that the new offers “more and more of the founding idea, travelers to offer a personal, authentic and often cheaper alternative to the classic hotel”. “It was about community, exchange and the experience of living like a local '. That could overload the platform.” Perhaps that is why there is an idea behind the experiences, according to Airbnb, to experience the city with the people they know best, said Chesky. The experiences also fit the previous business model of Airbnb, in which vacationers can book accommodation in which they can live like locals.
According to the company, providers of the services and experiences have to apply that Airbnb then selects them based on factors such as experience and reviews in their specialty, said Blecharczyk. The platform also says: “Hosts of services have an average of ten years of experience, have completed the Airbnb identity examination process and have to present the corresponding licenses and certifications.”
Airbnb as a social network
According to industry analyst Milanesi, the advance could also change the view of the stock exchange to Airbnb. While the company has so far been evaluated according to traditional criteria of the travel industry, such as the number of overnight stays, the stock exchange can now consider it more as a tech platform.
In the future, users should also be able to share photos and videos among themselves through the app – the platform will also become a social network. Unwanted interactions can be reported at the push of a button – as before when communicating between providers of accommodation and their customers. And Airbnb now also uses machine learning to recognize problems.
With information from Lilli-Marie Hiltscher, ARD finance editor.
