Latest / STR Unpacked / Airbnb Just Hired Booking's Homes Guy
Transcript
- Ben: Good morning and welcome to your short term rental bulletin on the 3rd of September. So Airbnb has had a real statement of intent I think this week. So what they've done is they've hired the executive who ran booking.com's hotels and homes business and put him in charge of Airbnb homes and hotels. So Pitjinn Rijera started on Tuesday as a chief business officer leading homes, hotels, global markets and enterprise operations. He arrives from TripAdvisor where he was chief business officer and before that he was president of Viator. Before that, more than 12 years at Booking.com. Joining in 2008 and serving as chief marketing officer and finishing as managing director of global hotels and accommodations. In Brian Chesky's words to his staff, he built Booking.com's business. Chesky's memo anticipated the reaction, quote, you may be asking Booking. Yes, booking. He calls booking an intent platform where people arrive already knowing where they are going and says Airbnb wants to own the whole trip before that. So the job title tells you the strategy. Booking has alternative accommodation at around 37 percent of its room nights. Airbnb is running the same play, but in the other direction. Since May, has added boutique and independent hotels across 20 destinations, including London, Paris, Madrid, Rome, you know, among others. The second quarter call last month, Chesky said that the hotel's initiative was going significantly better than expected and that Airbnb would be stepping on the gas. Hotels are still single digit share of nights, but are growing about three times faster than homes. So Airbnb's argument is that hotels help hosts around 35 % of first time hotel guests come back and book a home. The operators question is simpler. The person who spends years bringing supply onto booking now decides how Airbnb treats professional supply and the launch cities in your listing already shares results page with the hotel. So the two biggest platforms are converging on the same inventory, building a channel neither of them owns. Thank you for watching and I'll see you tomorrow.