Today at Airbnb Open LA, the peer-to-peer homestay network made a major announcement: It will now be your personal tour guide, taking a more wholistic approach to its offerings with Airbnb Trips.
"If you want to have an amazing trip, you end up basically on a research project," CEO Brian Chesky said on stage during the announcement. "You're in line, you're lonely, you're outside, and you're doing things locals never do."
Breaking the tourist trap, Airbnb is now offering experiences, as well as accommodations. Using a redesigned version of the app, travelers can easily immerse themselves in the local community with off-the-beaten-path activities and Airbnb hosts as their guides.
The "experiences" category is broken up into two different types of services. There are immersions, which can last days at a time. Or, there are single experiences that only last a few hours. "These aren't [just] tours, you immerse, you join the local communities," explained Chesky.
Encouraging those in foreign cities to be more spontaneous, examples of the wide range of activities include traveling through Tuscany with a truffle hunter, visiting a back alley parfumerie in Paris, going on a a '50s-and-'60s-themed tour of California in classic cars from the era, and joining local social impact experiences hosted by non-profit organizations. The best part: A majority of the experiences are under $200.
The platform will also allow users to find alternative transport options, (watch your back, Uber!), as well as make restaurant reservations. Everything you book, from accommodations to places to experiences, goes into an itinerary that will later serve as a timeline of your travels in your pocket. As of today, Airbnb Trips is now live, so get booking!
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