Airbnb Reinvents Its App and Experiences – and You Could Party With Megan Thee Stallion

If Airbnb has any say in it, your next trip will be planned and booked all in one place. Today, the company that revolutionized the short-term rental industry by making it more approachable to both travelers and homeowners, announced a major revamp of its platform focused on sightseeing, tours, and other guided experiences — in an effort to bring the personal touch back to an increasingly distracted and segregated travel marketplace. Airbnb launched Services and relaunched its Experiences tool as part of a significant shift in its strategy to directly compete with established players like Viator and GetYourGuide. Moving beyond its original focus on niche, host-led activities, Airbnb will now include mainstream landmarks and attractions in 650 cities worldwide – all to tie in a closer connection between where you stay in a location and what you do there.

“Seventeen years ago, we changed the way people travel. More than two billion guests later, Airbnb is synonymous with a place to stay,” said Brian Chesky, Airbnb co-founder and CEO. “With the launch of services and experiences, we’re changing travel again. Now you can Airbnb more than an Airbnb.”

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The Airbnb app gets a major makeover – and introduces Airbnb Services

Photo courtesy Airbnb

Airbnb launched Airbnb Experiences years ago, but Chesky is the first to say the program hasn’t, until now, lived up to its potential. The 2025 Summer Release includes a complete revamp of Airbnb Experiences. Now, when you book an Airbnb accommodation, the app will suggest nearby activities or experiences to level up your stay.

• New tabs, including Explore and Trips – The Airbnb app now offers more options for browsing potential trips and adding onto current trips, including a detailed travel itinerary and corresponding Experiences

• An updated Messaging platform that allows travelers to connect before and after travel experiences

• A more interactive profile – Airbnb now allows users to customize their profile to highlight places they’ve traveled, people they’ve met, and things they’ve done

• Automatically generated itineraries featuring everything booked through the app in relation to an upcoming trip, all in one place

• Personalized profiles for each member that allows for social connections

The app lets you book vetted chefs, trainers, masseuses, and certified professionals in seven other service sectors right on the app. Once booked, the service comes to you, and is customizable — for example, chef menus can be modified based on dietary preferences. Via the Services tab on the app, users can browse available service providers and learn more about them.

When selected, an Experience profile will display available booking times during your stay (if you have one booked in the same city) and ask if you’d like the experience to take place in your Airbnb or somewhere else. Booking is instant.

Importantly, it’s not required that you stay in an Airbnb to book these services — the company aims to offer the service to locals too, with the same perk of the provider coming to the booker. Need a photographer for an event or family gathering?  This is bookable in the app, as long as you’re in one of the 260 cities in which Airbnb Services are offered.

Airbnb completely revamped Airbnb Experiences to compete with top tour listing platforms

Photo: Jackie Beale

You may notice some sleek new features the next time you open your Airbnb app. The most pertinent for travelers is the ability to create lists around a location, including places to see and things they hope to do there and info on tour operators that can make those wishes a reality. The Experiences section received a complete makeover, following the company’s pause of new Experiences listings in 2023. Now, where travelers may have looked to sites they viewed as hosting more reputable or professional tours, they can instead find these same experiences on Airbnb and book them alongside their accommodations. Itineraries can be developed through the app exclusively instead of booking a home here, a tour on another site, and a private dinner on a third.

“One of the things I’m most exicted about is having the Experiences and Services in the same place,” Tara Bunch, Airbnb’s Global Head of Operations, told Matador. “Before it was kind of hard to find these things. It was hard to search Experiences. So having this all in one place, it’s easier to search, and I love the itineraries that adapt to local time zone. It makes the whole thing more manageable.”

Notably, Experiences listings are now tailored towards locals and travelers alike. Locals may use the platform to book a hot event ticket or access to an experience that is geared to them, rather than to someone who has not been to the location before.

“Hosts get to create a geo-fence of where they’re willing to, and therefore you won’t see an Experience that isn’t in that area,” Bunch says.

Experiences available for booking include:

• Chef-prepared meals and experiences, catering, and/or prepared meals for on-the-go

• Photography sessions

• Massage services and spa treatments

• Personal training – Yoga, strength training, HIIT, and other training services

• Hair, makeup, and nails

Later in 2025, guests will be able to see who else is going and where they’re from. The app will allow guests to conenct with each other beforehand, if they choose, and stay connected once the event is over. An integrated messaging platform allows guests to chat and share photos. More different types of Experiences and Originals are in the works, with plans to expand what’s available on the app in the near future.

“Youi can absolutely expect to see many more categories,” Bunch says. “Just about anything you can imagine is probably on our radar.”

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The update includes the launch of ‘Airbnb Originals’

Photo: Adrienne Raquel

In the past, Airbnb Experiences consisted of booking a guided activity, typically led by a local host. The new Airbnb Originals concept, launched today, amplifies that by upping the ante on the host — often to a renowned personality in the activity. Guests can transform into an alter-ego with Megan Thee Stallion. Professional artist Shantell Martin leads a drawing experience in New York and Los Angeles, for example, where she guides groups through the loss of self-consciousness surrounding their artistic skills and helps them find their inner drawer. Airbnb Originals are meant to reflect the culture of the location and the host, and in some cases are a traveler’s best means of meeting a local celebrity.

It’s about connecting the world’s most interesting people with those who find them intersesting, Chesky says. Examples include getting in the ring with a Luchador in Mexico City, or spend a Sunday learning to throw a perfect spiral and eating barbecue with Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City. Again, behind a tourist isn’t required, nor is actually staing in an Airbnb — anyone with the Airbnb app can book these, while traveling or in their own city. Of course, these celebrities aren’t always available — so the app offers a countdown that let’s interested parties know when they become available to book.

“Today’s travel activities offer no real connection to the city you’re visiting,” said Chesky. “The most authentic way to explore a city is with the locals who know it best. With Airbnb Experiences, don’t just see a place—experience it.”

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Want to host? Sign up now through the new Airbnb app

Photo courtesy Airbnb

For tour operators, getting started on the platform is designed to be as straightforward as possible. Airbnb takes 15 to 20 percent, depending on the type of activity you. host, and the rest goes to you. The new app features enhanced tools for team management and API connectivity. Marketing efforts will leverage short-form video content to engage users (which you can create), particularly targeting Gen Z travelers, and will promote experiences at various stages of the booking process to enhance discoverability.

The company is encouraging submissions from licensed tour operators and attractions, signaling a more professionalized and scalable approach to its offerings. These can include guided tours, food and drink experiences, outdoor excursions and more – effectively, if it’s available as a listing on sites like Viator and GetYourGuide, it can now be listed on Airbnb.

“Whatever you claim, we try to validate that that’s true,” Bunch says. “We want you to have at least two years of experience. We’re going to look at degrees, and if you don’t have degrees, we’ll look at your track record. Most people who sign up to host Experiences, they have a history that we can look at and verify that what you say is true.”

To lure hosts, Airbnb now offers team management and communication through its platform, including the ability to add co-hosts to a tour or listing. An array of tech tools help operators streamline their service to make it easier for potential customers to know what they’re booking, how much it will cost, where they need to arrive, and other details that, prior to this update, would have required significant back-and-forth between the host and guest. Most communication is now automated, and creating listings is more streamlined and simpler.

“If you are an expert in your city, and you have something to share, we’d love to have you apply,” Chesky said at the release event.

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