This Is How Airbnb Plans to Win Over Hotels

While it may seem antithetical for homesharing giant Airbnb to offer hotels on its platform alongside treehouses, apartments, and vacation homes, the truth is that many hotels have been using the site to get bookings for years. But it hasn't been until recently that the company has begun making a more concerted effort to get professional hospitality providers, from bed-and-breakfasts to hotels, to advertise their rooms on Airbnb. Earlier this month, the company announced a technology partnership with cloud-based hotel distribution platform SiteMinder to enable its more than 28,000 qualifying hotels to easily list their inventory on Airbnb. In December, Airbnb announced a partnership with the Association of Independent Hospitality Professionals and ThinkReservations that makes it easier for bed-and-breakfast owners to advertise their rooms on Airbnb. [caption id="attachment_274396" align="alignright" width="185"] Cameron Houser, Airbnb Hotels Program Manager[/caption] The credit for Airbnb's current push into the hotel market goes to Cameron Houser, Airbnb's hotels program manager. It was Houser who, as a marketing manager for the Mid-Atlantic region, began realizing that many of the listings she was finding on Airbnb were actually for hotels and bed-and-breakfasts, and not just homes. "We started looking at global data and, all of a sudden, we realized there are so many cool hotels on Airbnb that aren't labeled as hotels," Houser said. Guest reviews, many of which were also positive, would note how many of those guests were pleasantly surprised to discover that their Airbnb was actually a hotel and not a home. "A couple of people have come in and said, 'I stayed at the best hotel [on Airbnb]; I just didn't know it was a hotel,'" Houser said. "And the guests loved these places. They loved the host, loved the experience, loved the design. And that was sort of when I thought we might have something here. We should do something about this, and start to talk to these hosts, and start to talk to the guests who stayed there. Is this interesting to Airbnb guests? Can Airbnb do better for these hotel hosts?" So, a year ago, Houser's role changed, and Airbnb's hotel business "took off," achieving what she described as "520 percent growth in the category year-over-year." To date, she said that there are more than 24,000 boutique hotel listings on the platform, which is only a fraction (about 5 percent) of the 4.5 million listings that Airb