Airbnb to expand the experience element of Trips to 200 U.S. cities

Seems like Airbnb’s expansion beyond providing alternative short-term rentals is paying off. Airbnb launched Trips a little over a year ago with the objective of offering unique experiences while their travelers are visiting certain areas. The company is investing US$5 million to expand this part of the business for 200 cities in the US. There are currently 4,000 experiences being offered globally with 1,000 of them being offered in the US. Airbnb describes Trips as helping “small business owners, new entrepreneurs, and community non-profits to create immersive experiences for travelers.”

It seems growing beyond offering rentals has helped the company. According to Airbnb, global weekly guest bookings have risen by more than 2,000 percent year-on-year, while the number of experiences offered has increased by 500 percent.

Source: Digital Trends

Airbnb goes after wealthy travelers with new premium tier

If you haven’t tried Airbnb because it’s missing the amenities you find in luxury hotels, the service seems to be reaching out to you. A recent report from Bloomberg claims Airbnb is looking to introduce a new tier being called unofficially as “Select” that will feature more upscale properties. Airbnb itself will inspect these listings to see if they meet certain standards and the company will offer incentives like having a consultation with an Airbnb-provided interior decorator. Those who want to be part of the Select program will need to have things like new and matching bedding, single-use toiletries, available bottled water, tea, and coffee, and other amenities available in hotels.

Airbnb is supposedly targeting “older and wealthier travelers” who haven’t used Airbnb so far. The pilot test of the program is supposedly starting this week and will get a full rollout by the end of the year.

Source: The Verge

Airbnb introduces new security measures to help stop account takeovers

Airbnb is hoping to prevent accounts being illegally taken over by hackers and scammers with the new security measures it’s introducing into its app. One of them is multi-factor authentication. So whether you’re a gust or host, Airbnb will now require you to verify your login via a second account either through SMS or email. Airbnb is also introducing SMS alerts so you’ll see if there are changes made to your account with or without your knowledge.

According to the company, one of the most common security breaches on the service is when a scammer takes control of an account by obtaining the password. This, of course, poses a greater threat for Airbnb as this gives strangers access to private details about homes and the ability to rent this out to others. Airbnb says they are already using predictive models that are trained with machine learning techniques to flag uncharacteristic behavior. But that doesn’t seem to be enough. Hopefully, these new measures will help keep both hosts and guests safe.

Airbnb acquires Montreal-based luxury vacation rental site

It’s being reported that home rental service Airbnb dropped around US$300 million in cash and stock to buy upscale vacation site Luxury Retreats. Airbnb won’t disclose financial terms of the deal, though. The figures mentioned above were from a report by Bloomberg. Airbnb has over three million homes for rent in over 50,000 cities and has expanded its business bit by bit. In the past year, it started letting travelers book day trips and excursions through the site. Now, they’re moving into the luxury space with this acquisition.

Luxury Retreats has over 4,000 homes in 100 locations around the world. They offer more upscale villas for the affluent crowd and include a concierge service. The company will stay in Montreal at the moment and act as a standalone brand but over time their listings will be integrated and highlighted in Airbnb’s own platform.

Source: CNET