Airbnb wants to expand its offerings beyond home rentals by providing customers with a full-experience vacation. Think personal chefs, restaurant reservations, art gallery tours, or bicycle rentals.
The push is part of CEO Brian Chesky’s plan to expand the company’s reach by owning more of people’s travel experiences. The add-on services will be available when people book their accommodations online in order to create a well-rounded “magical trip,” as sources told Bloomberg. The feature is still in development and plans haven’t been formally announced as of yet, though one source said it will happen this year.
The program is one of Airbnb’s top priorities for the year and is being over seen by Chesky himself as well as Joe Zadeh, the vice president of product, reported Bloomberg. Add-on services would also be an important new revenue stream for the company and would pit it against larger travel sites like Kayak and Orbitz (OWW) that create a single destination for travelers to book anything from a flight to car rental to hotel.
Chesky also sees the “magical trips” as core to Airbnb’s mission.
“Or basic idea is: I want you to go to a city; you feel like you live there,” Chesky told Bloomberg Television. “When people go to a place, they want to be part of a neighborhood. And what we are really focused on doing is, how can we immerse you into a neighborhood?”