The billionaire co-founder of Airbnb, Brian Chesky has revealed he is seriously toying with the idea of starting an airline so that the home-sharing app could become a “one-stop shop for travel”.
So, AIR bnb then?
Nope, he has decided on bnb AIR. We’re not kidding.
So could this seriously eventuate?
Chesky first spoke publicly about his ambitious plan during a tell all interview with The Sunday Times.
“We’ve seriously considered a lot of things around aviation and spent a lot of time exploring different concepts,” Chesky told the British newspaper.
“We definitely want to make sure that we can get into the end-to-end trip business.”
Brian Chesky. Source: www.cnbc.com
During his interview he revealed Airbnb’s audacious plan: “to eat the travel industry”.
“We want to be a one-stop shop for travel. Of all the big tech companies, the way Amazon has approached building their business to be a one-stop shop for shopping is probably most similar to what we’re trying to do”.
Co-founder of Airbnb Brian Chesky.
Airbnb has just celebrated its 10th birthday, with more than 300 million people using the app in that time. The app offers over 4 million listings in 92 countries; figures that are only set to multiply.
Earlier this month we reported that Airbnb is forging a new partnership with a cloud platform for hotels, SiteMinder. A move that will see the company expand its product to include thousands of new hotels.
For the first time, SiteMinder will be able to list its huge portfolio of properties alongside existing properties from Airbnb hosts.
So where do Travel Agents fit in all this? Will they be considered?
We sure hope so, especially if Airbnb continues on its ambitious plan to eat our industry!
READ: GAME CHANGER: Airbnb to expand its list of hotels on offer
READ: Flight Centre Limited partners with the unexpected, Airbnb