Airbnb Buys Gaest to Push Further Into Meetings
Skift Take
Airbnb's move to offer more meetings spaces represents an example of one of Skift's 2019 Megatrends, as many giant online booking companies are looking for their next phases of growth by expanding into new areas.
Short-term rental booking giant Airbnb has acquired a small booking site,
Gaest, that helps business people book off-site spaces for meetings and events.
The companies didn't disclose the terms of the deal.
Gaest, which offers meeting spaces for rentals by the hour or day, was founded in 2015 in Aarhus, Denmark and has disclosed $3.5 million in fundraising.
Airbnb said in a statement that it intended to preserve the brand name Gaest.com and the separate platform in the near term.
"The deal certainly underlines the rapidly growing interest in the automation of meeting venue discovery and bookings," said Ciaran Delaney, CEO and founder of Dublin-based MeetingsBooker, arguably the largest online listing and dis
