Airbnb wants to make renting out someone else’s home or apartment a lot more like the experience of booking and staying at a traditional hotel. In an extensive profile of the company’s CEO, Fast Company reports that Airbnb is planning a number of new services, including room cleaning, airport transportation, and a streamlined key handoff as part of an attempt to add some of the comforts and amenities provided at real hotels. The cleaning service is said to be launching this summer and include everything from fresh sheets and towels to a mint and Vitaminwater. Presumably, guests will pay the added cost for the service.
Airbnb has plans to create an upscale hotel experience
is The Verge’s executive editor. He has covered tech, policy, and online creators for over a decade.
"Our business is the entire trip."
The broader idea is that by beginning to provide renters with access to more amenities, Airbnb can both increase customers’ enjoyment and increase the amount of money that they’re spending. Among the services that Fast Company reports Airbnb is already testing is a car service similar to Uber for helping people get to and from the airport. It’s easy to imagine that the service could expand from there too, giving customers an easy way to book transportation to a restaurant or around town.
Airbnb reportedly has plans to provide more amenities beyond this, some of which we could begin seeing throughout the year. The company’s CEO, Brian Chesky, puts Airbnb’s expanded mission succinctly: “Our business isn’t [renting] the house,” he tells Fast Company. “Our business is the entire trip.”
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