Airbnb CEO: ‘We Are Now Getting Serious About Hotels’

Airbnb has seen that when travelers can’t find a suitable home, they often book a hotel instead. The company now plans to keep those trips on-platform by testing listing boutique and independent hotels alongside home rentals in New York and other cities.

“There’s a lot of room, and there’s an entire market and segment of people that aren’t being served or are not being served properly, and we think we can serve them through collecting the very best boutiques, the very best independent hotels,” said Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky at Skift Global Forum in New York on Tuesday.

“The concrete thing is we are now