The homestay and accommodation network wants to make trips easy and magical
Airbnb has significantly changed the landscape of travel by offering travellers a reliable and cheaper form of accommodation via its homestay network. Now, the peer-to-peer online marketplace has unveiled the most significant development in its eight-year history as it moves beyond accommodation with the launch of Trips.
Bringing together where you stay, what you do and the people you meet all in one place, Trips is a people-powered platform designed to make travel both easy and magical. Trips covers three key areas – Experiences, Places and Homes, with Flights and Services to be added in the future.
Airbnb will be using Trips to immerse travellers in communities around the world and get unprecedented access to local passions and interests. The service aims to uncover the hidden gems that only locals know about via personal recommendations; and socialize with other travellers and locals at exciting events. Add that to three million bookable homes, and Airbnb becomes the one place to go for a truly different kind of travel experience.
Trips has thus far launched with around 500 Experiences in 12 cities worldwide, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Detroit, Havana, London, Paris, Florence, Nairobi, Cape Town, Tokyo and Seoul. From today, budding hosts in those and a further 39 cities worldwide can request to list their Experience. Additionally, Trips also offers Insider Guidebooks, with identified cultural experts and neighbourhood insides recommending the hidden gems within their city as well.
The launch of Trips also sees the introduction of a new identity authentication process that the Airbnb Experiences Community will be using. Hosts and guests will be asked to scan an official government ID (for example a passport, or driving license) and then take a simple selfie.
After the ID is authenticated, the ID and selfie will be reviewed to confirm that both pictures appear to match. Having a more robust standard of authenticating identity will make the Airbnb community stronger and reaffirms the company’s commitment to authenticity, reliability, and security.
