Airbnb hotel bookings are becoming part of the company’s bigger travel push. Airbnb is adding more ways to plan a trip inside its app, including hotels, grocery delivery, airport pickups, luggage storage and car rentals.
The hotel part is the big headline. Airbnb says it will feature boutique and independent hotels in major cities. The idea is to list hotels that feel closer to Airbnb’s usual travel style instead of turning the app into a generic hotel search engine.
Airbnb is also using perks to make the pitch stronger. The company says some featured hotel bookings can include credit toward a future Airbnb stay. That could help Airbnb compete with hotel-first services like Booking.com and Agoda.
More than a room
The app expansion goes beyond Airbnb hotel bookings. Grocery delivery is coming through Instacart in select US cities. Guests can have groceries delivered during a trip, and in some cities they can be stocked before arrival.
Airbnb is also adding airport pickups through Welcome Pickups, luggage storage through Bounce and car rentals near a guest’s listing. Those services make sense because they target the awkward parts of travel: arriving early, finding food, storing bags and getting around.
The Tech My Money take
Airbnb hotel bookings could make the app more useful for people who already start their trips there. It also makes Airbnb look less like a homes-only platform and more like a trip operating system.
The risk is clutter. Airbnb works best when the app feels simple. If these services are easy to find without getting in the way, the move could be genuinely useful. If the app starts feeling like a pile of upsells, travelers may tune it out fast.
Tech My Money tracks more app updates in our Apps coverage, and this one is worth watching because it changes what Airbnb wants to be.
