Airbnb Reverses Strategy in Return to Affiliate Partnerships With Big Players
Skift Take
The homesharing giant is only partnering with websites that attract at least a million visitors a month. Airbnb is calculating that the revenue upside would be worth the brand sacrifice that comes with affiliate marketing.
In somewhat of a strategy reversal, Airbnb is once again giving selected third-party websites a chance to take a cut of its bookings by posting links to its roster of vacation- and apartment-rental properties.
This commission-generating business model, called affiliate marketing, means that many of Airbnb's 4 million listings will become more broadly visible beyond the confines of the San Francisco-based company's website and mobile app.
The advantage of affiliate marketing for a player such as Airbnb is that it would boost revenue while the disadvantages are that Airbnb would have to share that revenue with a third party, and these types of relationships come at the expense of promot
