Worldwide: Airbnb has agreed to acquire hotel-booking service HotelTonight in another sign of diversifying from its principle rental service. 

According to HotelTonight, the company focuses on making last-minute trips easy and fun, offering guests seamless, on-demand booking for boutique and independent hotels.

Airbnb co-founder, CEO and head of community, Brian Chesky, said: “A big part of building an end-to-end travel platform is serving every guest, whether they plan their trip a year or a day in advance.

“Working with the incredible team at HotelTonight, we will offer guests an unparalleled last-minute travel experience that provides unique, memorable hospitality on every trip, on any schedule, at any time,” he added.

According to one Google executive, Airbnb is now “the most searched-for accommodations brand”, with over 400,000 companies using Airbnb to manage their travel, including business and last-minute travel arrangements.

Airbnb reports that same-day bookings are now growing 2x year over year, which will help the company deliver on its goal to make Airbnb for everyone and provide guests with authentic, local experiences on their trips.

HotelTonight co-founder and CEO, Sam Shank, said: “We started HotelTonight because we knew people wanted a better way to book an amazing hotel room on-demand, and we are excited to join forces with Airbnb to bring this service to guests around the world.

“Together, HotelTonight and Airbnb can give guests more choices and the world’s best boutique and independent hotels a genuine partner to connect them with those guests,” he added.

The acquisition of HotelTonight aims to:

1. Accelerate Airbnb’s work to build an end-to-end travel platform that serves everyone:

Airbnb is making it easier to find last-minute places to stay when home hosts are often already booked. The availability of boutique hotels—as well as private rooms and entire homes that are instantly bookable—helps ensure authentic, high-quality stays are available on-demand, particularly at the last minute.

2. Meet enormous demand from and for boutique hotels:

Together with HotelTonight, Airbnb believes it can offer places to stay for all types of traveller on any kind of trip and make it easier for small businesses and hoteliers who provide authentic, unique experiences within Airbnb’s global network of hosts and guests.

3. Support home hosts:

Boutique hotels are bringing in more guests to Airbnb, thereby making its community larger and stronger. As soon as these guests then come to Airbnb, they come back to book with home hosts on return trips.

Furthermore, The HotelTonight app and website will remain operating in their current state, however Shank will lead the company’s boutique hotel category when the acquisition is complete.

For more information, visit the website here.