Airbnb Takes the Tedium Out of Travel with Trips

Airbnb, once just a place to list your apartment or book a room, is becoming a full-circle travel platform. This week, the company announced Trips, an immersive way to plan and enjoy your travel experience.

Announced at the opening keynote of their Airbnb Open festival in LA on Friday, Trips is now available as an update to your Airbnb app and is launching with three areas: Homes, Places, and Experiences.

Homes is the Airbnb you currently know—listing and booking apartments or rooms around the world. Places is an insider’s guide to a destination, funneling recommendations from hosts, locals, and influencers all into one place. There are currently 100 guides for six cities—Los Angeles, San Francisco, Havana, Nairobi, Detroit and Seoul—with suggestions for places to run or hit up a cool dive bar. There are also audio walking tours available (currently just for LA) and restaurant reservation booking directly through the Airbnb app.

Experiences are a new way to get to know a location, ranging from afternoon excursions to multi-day adventures, led by local guides who share their passions. This isn’t your average wine tasting bus tour—think more like truffle hunting in Tuscany or a three-day camping & surfing trip in LA. There are also Experiences that give back, like going behind the scenes of a boxing gym in Detroit that has an after school program for kids.

Airbnb also plans on launching two more areas for Trips—Flights and Services—down the line.