Airbnb (ABNB -0.67% ) It not only offers rentals on their platform, but also has an unlimited untapped opportunity to offer more experiences and activities along with travel booking. In this clip from “Ask Us Anything” Motley Fool LifeAnd Registered on March 23Motley Fool contributors Matt Frankel, Jose Najarro, Jamie Louko and Jon Quast discuss Airbnb opportunities in the market and how it could become Amazon (AMZN -2.46% ) Travel.
Matt Frankel: She created her space, and the thing I love most about Airbnb is that her instructable market is literally every home in the world. Their market opportunity that can be addressed are short-term vacation rentals, long-term vacation rentals, which not only that, but anything you can sell next to those products, they’ve started selling experiences on their platform. For example, if you book an Airbnb in Florida, you can book a snorkeling trip to go along with it. So experiences are one thing. Restaurant references are another thing they can do. Because I know every time I stay at an Airbnb, I want to know what the best local restaurants are. Almost anything you can refer world travelers to is their instructable market opportunity and it’s so big, it’s hard to even define it. They say just between short-term and long-term experiences and expertise, this represents an annual market of US$3.4 trillion today. Before all that inflation, Airbnb room rates were up 20% year over year. So this is a multibillion dollar market opportunity, Airbnb is the leader in this field by far and will continue to grow. I can see them like amazon travel.
Joseph Ngaro: Definitely dead, thank you. Jimmy and John, anything you want to share real fast? Next, I have a few questions here on Slido.
Jimmy Loko: I just want to share what Matt said. I really think those experiences open up such a big opportunity. In preparation, I’ve been talking about Brian Chesky, CEO, two months ago Twitter (TWTR -1.68% ), posted a tweet saying, If we could improve something on our platform, what would it be? I was reading some of these and some of the recommendations that users wanted to increase those experience partnerships were really cool. Not only do I like restaurants and things like that, but I’ve seen partnerships with local gyms, partnerships with national parks, and other tourist activities. Indeed, the potential on this front is limitless. I do a lot of things here at home and when I go on vacation I will do those touristy things, but I will also want to, say, go to the gym. The gym is not something I skip on my vacation. I’m going there. If I’m not in a hotel and don’t have the right gym for me, I want to be able to find somewhere I can go for a temporary gym membership. If Airbnb can partner with something like that, I see it’s like what domino‘s (PDZ -1.25% ) Do you order a pizza and then they say, “Hey, do you want anything else with that order? Do you want dessert? Or do you want a trip to the national park? Do you want a temporary membership to a mile down the street gym?” stuff like that and just acquire those partnerships. It’s not a vacation and more than just living there for a week and being able to blend in with the world around you. I think it has a lot of potential and will make multiples of the platform more valuable than it is now.
John Quast: I really agree with that. I’d like to see Airbnb almost a hybrid, Tripadvisor ( short trip 2.40% ) the product. Tripadvisor is a great product in many ways when you’re planning a trip, except I don’t do anything else there [laughs] When I’m on Tripadvisor other than reading what some other people have written about certain things and things to do in the area, but I like having this feature right on Airbnb and providing the opportunity to book things directly and where it makes sense.
Carpenters: I agree with you there, John. The only time I opened something like howling (Scream -0.23% ) Or Tripadvisor when I’m away traveling and usually on Airbnb. For them, if they can get that there, I might be able to give a stronger reason to use the app. Or maybe if there was a very cool event and it was in the app and it was shown, hey, there’s an event coming up on this site and there are a lot of Airbnbs around this site, it could also be another way of electives they can grow in.
This article represents the opinion of the author, who may disagree with the “official” recommendation position of the Motley Fool Premium Consulting Service. We are diverse! Asking about an investment thesis — even if it’s our own — helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.
