The overwhelming majority of travel agents do not book Airbnb, and many are against the company’s reported ambition to expand into air travel, according to an online survey Travel Agent conducted last week.
Over 85 percent of respondents to our poll question, “Do You Book Airbnb?” answered “No,” with only a bit less than 15 percent responding “Yes.”
We also asked about the company’s reported desire to expand into air travel, which Airbnb Co-Founder Brian Chesky expressed in a recent interview with the Sunday Times (registration required). Nearly 65 percent of respondents said that they feel negatively about any potential plan by Airbnb to book flights, with over 45 percent describing their feelings as “very negative.” Only a little less than 7 percent felt positively about such a plan.
One agent commented “Depends if they will pay commission.”
We conducted the poll in the wake of Airbnb’s announcement of a 10-year “roadmap” for future expansion that will see it continue to expand beyond vacation rentals into a number of other travel areas, such as luxury travel. The company will add new luxury product as part of its Beyond by Airbnb tier, which builds on last year’s acquisition of Montreal-based luxury vacation rental company Luxury Retreats. Another new tier, Airbnb Plus, includes homes that have been verified by the company in person. As part of the roadmap, Airbnb is also launching a number of collections aimed at market niches like family travel, business travel, social stays, weddings, honeymoons, group getaways and dinner parties, and launching its own loyalty program, in competition with loyalty programs from major hotel companies.
Following the announcement of the roadmap, Chesky told the Sunday Times that Airbnb has “seriously considered” expanding into aviation with the goal of becoming a “one-stop shop for travel.” In the interview Chesky compared the approach to that of another tech giant, Amazon, which has grown from an online book-selling business into a complete end-to-end retail experience.
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