Airbnb Touts Growth of Trips for Foodies, Millennials and Solo Travelers

Exactly one year after Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky announced the official debut of Airbnb Trips, the company is heralding the product as a success and noting some emerging trends in the types of tours and activities that its users are booking via Airbnb. The company said that since the launch, the number of Experiences — Airbnb uses the term to describe shorter, non-multi-day, peer-to-peer-led activities — has grown dramatically to more than 3,100 in 40 cities across 26 countries. Airbnb Trips also includes Immersions, which are longer, often multi-day, tours and activities. Last year, the company launched Trips with just 12 destinations and has increased that number to 40 so far this year. Next year, the company plans to add Trips in markets that include Costa Rica, Hawaii, Melbourne, Buenos Aires, Bali, Hong Kong, and Jamaica. From January to November, the company also said the number of total weekly Experience guests has "increased 20x," although they did not give exact numbers. Airbnb said guests, on average, pay $55 each per booking. "October was our strongest month yet for Experiences bookings," the company also noted in a statement. Emerging Trends in Airbnb Experiences The company also divulged data about what types of Airbnb Experiences are the most popular, and who is booking them. Twenty-nine percent of bookings, it said, fall into the food and drink category, including homestyle dinners, specialty cooking lessons, and guided food and drink tours. The other most popular categories for Airbnb Experiences were the arts (14 percent); sports (10 percent); lifestyle (9 percent); nature (9 per