Airbnb joins the loyalty race
After revealing its intention to tackle the hotel market, alongside the launch of its ‘Services’ and ‘Experiences’ categories, Airbnb is stepping up a gear. The American platform has reached a symbolic milestone with the announcement of its own loyalty programme.
Like Booking.com with Genius and Expedia with OneKey, Airbnb hopes to accelerate its development with this new growth lever. Dave Stephenson, its Chief Business Officer, acknowledges that the platform has so far had to grow “at a significant disadvantage compared to competing OTAs and hotels”.
This is also a way for Airbnb to legitimise its entry into an extremely competitive hotel sector where loyalty programmes reign supreme, particularly in the United States with giants such as Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors.
Points or no points?
While very few details about this future programme are known yet, Brian Chesky promises that it will be ‘disruptive’. However, it is very likely that the programme will not be based on a points system but rather on a subscription system offering exclusive privileges to members, such as privileged access to ‘premium’ accommodation or experiences.
“Later this year, Airbnb will also reward its best travellers by offering them a new loyalty programme with benefits that apply to the entire trip. In the coming months, Superguest will first be tested with 10,000 travellers before being rolled out to the entire Airbnb traveller community by the end of the year,” the group explained in a press release.
It is with this in mind that Airbnb began experimenting earlier this year by offering a 10% discount to American and British customers who book a hotel through HotelTonight, a platform acquired by the group in 2019. “Nine out of ten nights are booked in hotels, so we think this is a great…
