Airbnb's Around-the-World Trip Promotion Gets Off to a Rocky Start
Skift Take
This promotional tour from Airbnb to tout Airbnb Adventures clearly backfired because of traveler outrage and difficulties in booking and paying for the one-time trip. It's not an opportune start for Airbnb's tour initiative, which may be a tad more complex than Airbnb anticipates.
Tour operator competitors have cautioned Airbnb that running multiday tours wouldn't be as easy as it might appear. The homesharing site is indeed finding that out the hard way as a high-profile trip promotion, "Around the world in 80 days," part of the new Airbnb Adventures, has been beset with consumer complaints about the booking and payment process in the days after it was first offered.
On Twitter and Instagram, for example, consumers have bemoaned the fact that their credit cards were charged twice or three times when booking the tour while sometimes it was unclear whether the booking actually went through. Others complained about the fact that Airbnb was only making two places available every few days for the 18-country tour, which runs September 1 to November 19.
Airbnb touted the "ext
