Airbnb expands beyond home-rental into services and experiences

Airbnb is broadening its horizons, venturing beyond its core home-rental business to include a wider array of services and experiences.

Detailed in a recent announcement, this move aims to capitalize on the platform’s substantial user traffic and position Airbnb more directly in competition with other travel and service giants.

The company is introducing a new feature that allows travellers to book services such as massages, haircuts, and chef-prepared meals, which can be added to their stay or booked independently. Airbnb is also re-launching its “experiences” feature, which had been paused in 2023 to allow the company to focus on its core home-stay offerings.

During Airbnb’s Q1 2025 call, CEO Brian Chesky revealed that the platform had over 1.5 billion devices accessing the service in the past year. The company aims to better monetize this traffic, noting that many users visit the site without booking accommodation.

The expansion brings Airbnb into more direct competition with companies like Tripadvisor, Booking.com, Viator, GetYourGuide, and Yelp.

Initially, Airbnb will enable users to book services across ten categories, including chefs, catering, prepared meals, photography, massages, spa treatments, personal training, hair, nails, and makeup. These services will be available in 100 cities across eight countries initially. While some services can be enjoyed at the user’s accommodation, many will require travel to a specific venue.

The relaunched experiences will span 19 categories in 1,000 cities globally eventually. These will include cultural and museum tours, outdoor and wildlife activities, food tours and cooking classes, art workshops, shopping experiences, and wellness and beauty activities.

Airbnb had previously tried to push beyond home rentals, but dialled back those efforts in 2020 to focus on its core business as the Covid pandemic shuttered borders and decimated the travel industry.