Airbnb Launches New Trips Service in Cape Town!
Great news for those travelling to Cape Town soon and those hosting or renting with Airbnb – the travel sensation has just unveiled an exciting new development as it moves beyond accommodation with the launch of Airbnb’s Trips! This new offering aims to bring together where you stay, what you do and the people you meet all in one place. Trips is a people-powered platform designed to make travel both easy and magical and launched with three key focus areas – namely; Experiences, Places and Homes. But it doesn’t stop there, Airbnb has also confirmed that Flights and Services will be added in the future to offer travellers a complete travel solution.
According to Airbnb, Trips will make travel magical again by immersing travellers in communities around the world. Travellers will have the opportunity to get unprecedented access to local passions and interests, like violin making in Paris or marathon running in Kenya; discover the hidden gems that only locals know about via personal recommendations; and socialise with other travellers and locals at exciting events. Add that to three million bookable homes, and Airbnb becomes the one-stop-travel-shop for a truly different kind of travel experience.
Of course, for those renting out their homes on Airbnb, Trips is also a great new way for them to boost their income and provides people with a way to make money from their passions and interests. “Until now, Airbnb has been about homes,” said Brian Chesky, Airbnb CEO. “Now, Airbnb is launching Trips, bringing together where you stay, what you do, and the people you meet all in one place. We want to make travel magical again by putting people back at the heart of every trip.”
So how does it work? First off, there’s the experiences offering. Experiences are handcrafted activities designed and led by local experts – be it a single activity like a Samurai Swordplay workshop, a few hours spent giving something back to communities through non-profit organisations, or an immersive multi-day experience like learning about and driving classic cars in Malibu. Experiences offer you the opportunity to immerse yourself in the communities you stay in and discover places that you wouldn’t otherwise come across, such as Truffle Hunting in Tuscany or the grime music scene in London. Trips launches with around 500 Experiences in 12 cities worldwide, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Detroit, Havana, London, Paris, Florence, Nairobi, Tokyo, Seoul, and Cape Town! Starting now, budding hosts in those and a further 39 cities worldwide can request to list their Experience.
Next up is the Places offering, which includes guidebooks, meet ups and audio walks. Trips brings places to life through the people that live there, reflecting the recommendations of hundreds of thousands of Airbnb hosts, neighbourhood insiders and local influencers and is an alternative to aggregated tourist lists that funnel people to the same places. With Insider Guidebooks, Airbnb has identified cultural experts and neighbourhood insiders to recommend the hidden gems within their city. Find the perfect run from a marathoner, the best dive bar from a local mixologist and the next great undiscovered restaurant from an up-and-coming chef. 100 Insider Guidebooks will be available at launch in six cities – Los Angeles, San Francisco, Havana, Nairobi, Detroit and Seoul – with more coming soon. At launch, Places includes over one million individual recommendations worldwide from Airbnb’s home hosts, recommending their favourite hidden gems in their neighbourhoods, from cafes and restaurants to parks and other local attractions.
And, if you’re travelling alone then Trips will also give you the opportunity to make your travels more social by helping connect the thousands of Airbnb users in a city on any given night. Meet ups within Places will let local businesses host one-off or regular events for Airbnb guests and locals to connect with each other. These new Airbnb offerings will help to make travel easy than ever before. With Trips, Airbnb aims to make travel easy with one app to book most of your travel needs. We also love the sound of Trip Itinerary – a new feature that brings together everything the traveller needs to know into one simple timeline, with the ability to easily book and add Experiences or things to do.
For more information on Trips from Airbnb, visit the Airbnb website.