Airbnb ventures into “Adventures”
Worldwide: Airbnb has launched the latest vertical of its growing business in travel experiences, known as “Airbnb Adventures” to complement its private lodging service.
The latest category, which is part of its existing Experiences programme, combines a collection of tours and trips lasting anything between three days and a week. Rather than simply providing typical city walking tours, Airbnb Adventures is designed to create an immersive and unforgettable experience for guests that they will never forget.
Airbnb announced the launch of Adventures as a “new collection of bucket list worthy multi-day experiences hosted by local experts that take intimate groups to epic off-the-beaten-path locations and immerses them in unique cultures and communities”.
One such trip may be a three-day wildlife excursion in Kenya, which would involve a walking trip and a promise to find lions, experience a campfire learning session and try a bush tea. The cost for that is currently totalled at $500 per person, which includes five meals, drinks and a two night camping stay in a tent.
Possible alternatives include UFO hunting in the American Southwest, camping by a cliffside in Colorado, a seaweed safari in Sweden and a farm stay in Indiana’s Amish community, among the company’s offering of more than 200 adventures.
To get this off the ground, Airbnb has been working directly with local experts and tour companies, as well as a third party for verifying the certifications that are often required to provide these kinds of activities safely with the relevant legislation and insurance.
Airbnb’s venture into “Adventures” is yet another extension of its business as a way of complementing its core product offering of short-term rentals, following the debut of its Experiences initiative in 2016. The latter has now been reportedly rolled out to over 1,000 cities across the world.
One market that Airbnb is keen to expand into is in India, according to the company’s vice president of Experiences, Joe Zadeh.
He told The Economic Times: “We are trying to provide everything travel-related on one single plate. This is a whole new focus for us globally and in India.”
Rumours also persist that the company is exploring entering the world of creative content and media streaming, as well as the possibility of going in for an initial public offering (IPO) sometime later this year.
For more information, visit the Airbnb Adventures site here.
