Fortune - USA (2020-01)

coping with a bad trip at airbnb

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FORTUNE.COM // JANUARY 2020

the effort, it should pay off, says

Raymond James analyst Justin

Patterson: “There will be upfront

costs, but once that’s done, it then

turns into a unique trust and

safety advantage.”

Looming over this struggle is a

philosophical question: As Airbnb

scales up and commits itself to

monitoring users more closely,

does the company risk abandoning

the “Live like a local” mantra that

attracted independent-minded

travelers in the first place? Kristin

Luna, a Nashville-based journal-

ist who’s been a high- standard

“superhost” on Airbnb for almost

six years, says she’s already seen

changes for the worse: “It feels like

a big corporation where you’re just

another number.”

Chesky and his colleagues

wouldn’t like being described that

way—but growing up as a com-

pany may mean embracing the

definition.

IRBNB’S MATURATION is as

much about develop-

ing and expanding new

businesses as it is about

improving security on the original

one. The week before Halloween,

Chesky and a dozen colleagues

were in a conference room, prepar-

ing for the launch of the Cooking

category. The chief executive,

wearing a faded sea-green T-shirt

with tiny, tattered holes in the col-

lar, stood up and moved closer to

the wall-size screen. He was star-

ing intently at a photo of people

seated around a table of food, high

on a plateau, overlooking a coun-

tryside at sunset.

Experiences are meant to offer

travelers unique activities with

local hosts; the one on-screen

advertised “handmade pasta with

Grandma” in Rome. Which is

why Chesky was not satisfied with

the gorgeous vista. The grandma

in question, Nonna Nerina, was

standing at the table, but she

was not rolling dough. “Are there

any images where she’s actually

cooking, though?” It was the third

time Chesky had raised this issue.

The images promoting a Cook-

ing Experience shouldn’t lose the

idea of participation, he insisted—

otherwise, how would it be differ-

ent from just going to a restaurant?

Chesky has long been fascinated

by the idea of offering not just

places to stay but also things to

do. Launched in November 2016,

Airbnb Trips originally gave guests

the option to coordinate a home

rental with any of a range of 500

activities—while avoiding the hotels

and clichéd excursions associated

with the package tour label. The

Trips’ off-the-beaten-path ethos

dovetailed with Airbnb’s homes

business. “You don’t sleep in a tree

house to get a good night’s sleep, so

to speak,” Chesky says. “You could

just stay in a boxlike hotel environ-

ment to do that.”

But Trips didn’t catch on, and

Chesky was forced to go back to

the drawing board. Some inside

the company wondered why its

CEO was so gung ho about this

side project. “A company full of

bright people are going to ask dif-

ficult and smart questions,” says

Dave Augustine, a software engi-

neer who was an early member of

the Trips team. The team would

WAY PAST COUCH SURFING

Since 2016, Airbnb has either acquired or invested in multiple smaller travel com-

panies. The company aims to build a portfolio of companies outside of its original

short-term, low-priced home-rental model, the better to pitch itself to customers

and investors as a full-service travel company. Here are some of the key additions:

LUXURY

RETREATS

Acquired in 2017 for a

reported $300 million,

its offerings reflected

its name: At one point,

they included an

entire island owned by

Richard Branson. Its

portfolio is now the

foundation of Airbnb

Luxe, where rates top

$1,000 a night.

HO T E L-

TONIGHT

Airbnb bought this last-

minute hotel-booking

site in March for

$400 mil lion. It was the

startup’s biggest ac-

quisition yet, and one of

its biggest departures

from its couch-surfing

roots, since its rooms

are predominantly in

conventional hotels.

RESY

Airbnb in 2017 led a

$13 million investment

round into Resy, the

restaurant-reserva-

tions app. Their partner-

ship allowed guests to

book tables through

Airbnb’s website or app.

(Airbnb recently discon-

tinued that service.)

URBAN-

DOOR

Airbnb claims that

500,000 companies

use its Airbnb for Work

service. In August, it

bought Urbandoor,

a company that

focuses on corporate

extended stays, for

an undisclosed sum.

The big prize: the

housing Urbandoor

controls in some

1,500 cities.

TIQETS

Airbnb led a $60 mil-

lion funding round for

this ticket-technolo-

gy startup in October.

Tiqets specializes in

connecting custom-

ers to traditional ex-

cursions like museum

and landmark tours,

a business in which

Airbnb is eager to

expand.