Airbnb Starts Move Into Meetings
Photo Credit: A promotional image from Airbnb promoting its new curated choices for company events. Airbnb
Skift Take
Airbnb's new offerings will prove valuable for companies that don't want to source and plan their own intricate offsite experiences. A wider push into distributing meeting space, though, isn't here yet.
A few months ago, when Airbnb announced that people holding events could embed a map of Airbnb listings nearby, I posited that the bigger opportunity would provide spaces and sellable add-ons to people planning meetings. After all, embedded maps are so 2010.
Now, Airbnb is going to sell experiences to corporate customers and curate appropriate listings for those who want to try a meeting outside the usual hotel conference room. Airbnb trialed these new features and found that the demand for them outstripped expectations, leading them to shut down the experiment early.
This should come as no surprise to Airbnb-watchers and those who study travel
