SAN FRANCISCO — Airbnb got an upgrade Thursday, rolling out new luxury options and added user benefits in an attempt to attract a wider customer base as the company gears up for an IPO expected as soon as 2019.
To appeal to travelers who seek out the nicer things in life — which previously may have meant hotels, not Airbnb rentals — CEO Brian Chesky unveiled “Airbnb Plus.” Starting Thursday, the new feature offers 2,000 “insanely nice” homes in 13 cities, he said, including San Francisco.
Chesky also teased the upcoming “Beyond by Airbnb,” a product of the company’s acquisition of Luxury Retreats, which provides high-end stays at extravagant homes and villas in places such as Aspen and Tuscany. And he revealed improved search tools, which let users find homes with specific characteristics — such as a musician’s rustic home with a balcony — as well as new perks for Airbnb’s top-rated landlords and renters.
The news is the latest attempt by Airbnb to diversify its product offerings and transform what was once a scrappy startup into a mature company with staying power and the ability to eventually go public. It’s also a move to lure more users into the Airbnb community, as the company continues to struggle with regulatory setbacks. In San Francisco, for example, after initially fighting city officials, Airbnb in May agreed to kick hosts off the platform if they didn’t register with the city — a practice the company put into place at the beginning of this year.
It was just over a year ago that Airbnb first branched beyond its trademark home-sharing platform with the launch of Experiences, which lets travelers book activities led by local residents. Earlier this month, Airbnb tapped Belinda Johnson as its first chief operating officer, elevating her from her former role as chief business affairs and legal officer. Last month Airbnb appointed its first independent board member — former American Express CEO Ken Chenault. Airbnb, which, like most startups, has been tight-lipped about its financials in the past, has promised to provide greater transparency by releasing its first annual stakeholder report in March.
With Thursday’s announcement, Airbnb appears to be turning a new focus to luxury. The homes on the new Airbnb Plus section are verified via a 100-point inspection, which checks everything from the home’s WiFi quality to its aesthetic design. Adding more luxury options, Beyond by Airbnb will launch its high-end offerings this spring.
To help travelers choose between Airbnb’s 4.5 million listings, the company also is dividing its homes into new categories with advanced search options. Guests can look specifically for vacation homes, bed and breakfast options, or “unique” residences — such as tree houses and boats. Then they can further narrow their search by requesting a home with a crib or a large kitchen, or they can choose a home tailored to their reason for travel — picking a kid-friendly house for a family trip, or a home with an office for a business trip.
“The aspiration is to make sure that people see themselves and their dreams for travel in one of those,” Margaret Richardson, Airbnb’s head of global policy development, said in an interview after the announcement.
Chesky also announced new perks for the home-sharing company’s highest-rated hosts, dubbed “Superhosts,” who will get access to new perks over the course of the year including personalized URLs for their listings and discounts on smart home products from vendors like Nest. This summer, Airbnb also will launch a trial “Superguest” program, offering 10,000 guests access to special benefits such as airport pickup and exclusive activities.
Despite its focus on Airbnb’s future, Thursday’s event also echoed Airbnb’s flashy November 2016 unveiling of Experiences in Los Angeles. There, in a bold move that signaled Airbnb was no longer threatening just hotels, but had shifted its target to the entire travel industry, Chesky explained how travelers can use the Airbnb platform to book exotic activities not found in any guidebook.
Over the next year, the program expanded from 500 experiences in 12 cities to more than 5,000 experiences in 58 markets around the world — including a Salsa dancing lesson in Havana, a visit to a wolf sanctuary outside of Seattle, and the opportunity to learn hatmaking in New York City. Experiences is growing more quickly than the initial home-sharing platform did, with more than 10 times the number of bookings as homes had at this stage in its growth, according to Airbnb.
And it’s on the verge of making the company money. The Experiences feature is on track to be profitable by the end of 2019, said Airbnb spokesman Nick Papas.
All the changes have spurred buzz about a potential upcoming Airbnb initial public offering. But Chesky quelled those rumors earlier this month, saying there will be no IPO in 2018.