Airbnb Looks To Go Beyond Lodging With Guided Tour Program
by Jessica MontevagoLos Angeles is being tested for the City Hosts program. Photo:
In a grab at a bigger share of the travel vacation market, Airbnb now is offering customized multi-day packaged tours.
The home-sharing company’s new “City Hosts” service is designed to give visitors authentic experiences led by “local, knowledgeable hosts,” it said.
The City Hosts beta test offers 36 customizable multi-day trips, each including a minimum of two experiences, a stay in an Airbnb home and access to an app that provides real-time activity and dining suggestions. Guests can take the tours individually or as part of a group. For now the beta is available in San Francisco, London, Los Angeles, Paris and Tokyo.
In Tokyo, for example, the “Art Luminary” City Host experience offers three hours a day over four days with Yoko, a local art curator, checking out art galleries and meeting with local artists. Other adventures are kite surfing in San Francisco, cooking lessons with a Parisian chef, or exploring London’s Grime music scene with a record scout.
Airbnb began testing the program in June, but most experiences won’t be available until later this summer.
The company may be looking to diversify as it faces legal trouble in several markets. San Francisco passed a law requiring hosts to register with the city, and the New York state senate passed a bill prohibiting Airbnb users from listing unoccupied apartments as short-term rentals. The city of Anaheim has banned all short-term rentals, effectively blocking residents from using Airbnb at all.
Still, Airbnb operates in more than 200 countries worldwide, and is valued at $25 billion.
