Airbnb jumped into the package tour business on June 13, launching Airbnb Adventures. This is an expansion of the Airbnb Experiences service. But it’s a move away from peer to peer activities.
There is a bit of a twist to distinguish Airbnb Adventures from traditional commercial tours. They claim the operators are local experts “either entirely exclusive to Airbnb, or provided by small, local operators that are not typically found on any other major booking platform”. Regardless, this is no longer just a service connecting locals with travelers. Adventure guides will need certifications to run their business. And Airbnb will have to figure out how to support multi-day trips when things go wrong.
Of the tours initially available, some look like expansions of shorter Experiences, run by individuals as a peer to peer service. But others are listings for commercial tour operators.
With this launch Airbnb is going after the almost $700 billion adventure tour market. They’re well positioned to advertise these tours to folks already using the website to book lodging. And perhaps Airbnb will bring some innovation to the adventure tour market.
As a publicity stunt for the launch of Adventures, Airbnb is promoting an 80 day around the world trip. Booking for this trip will be live on June 20, and departs from London on September 1.
Ohh that’s very interesting news. I’ve been using Airbnb for the most comfortable stay while travelling in foreign countries. Thanks for this information.
I have used Airbnb services while traveling in Canada. The service is great and the costs are lower than traditional booking services. The new service line i.e. ackage tour will be a bit tough for Airbnb because already there are similar established competitors in the market like Agoda, Tripadvisor, Booking.com etc. Best of luck!