Airbnb adds independent hotels to its platform in pilot push to revive growth and target business travel
Source · Travel & Leisure desk
— Summary
Airbnb is adding independent hotels to its platform, as the company synonymous with short-term lets turns to traditional accommodation to revive growth. A pilot now lets users in New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Madrid pick from a range of boutique hotels alongside private homes. The San Francisco-based group is undercutting the fees charged by Booking.com and Expedia, with Jesse Stein — appointed Airbnb's first head of hotels in January — saying the company is offering a "very competitive commission structure ... relative to the other players in the space".
Two pressures sit behind the move. First, Airbnb wants business travellers, who prefer the predictability of hotels: global business travel spending reached $1.6tn in 2025 according to the Global Business Travel Association. Second, regulation is biting: New York's 2023 rules curtailed short-term tourist rentals, and Airbnb said in its November earnings call that it had been unable to convert millions of New York searches into sales. The growth picture is the trigger — revenues rose just 10 per cent in 2025, the slowest pace since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the share price is up only 2 per cent since the December 2020 listing of the $85bn business. CEO Brian Chesky said in September he was "not happy" with growth and planned "to layer on many businesses" to expand faster.
Competition will be hard. Bernstein analyst Richard Clarke flagged the difficulty of breaking into the hotel reservations market dominated by Booking.com and Expedia. Hilton, Marriott and InterContinental Hotels Group are themselves running "soft" and "conversion-friendly" partnerships to add independent hotels to their networks without the cost of new builds. Source: Financial Times, 18 April 2026, Stephanie Stacey.
The story in one line. Airbnb is opening its platform to independent and boutique hotels in a pilot across New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Madrid, undercutting Booking.com and Expedia on commission to revive a stalled growth story.
Key numbers
Pilot cities: New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Madrid.
2025 revenue growth:+10% — the slowest since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Share price since IPO:+2% since December 2020 listing of the $85bn business.
Global business travel spending in 2025:$1.6tn (Global Business Travel Association).
2023 New York rules curtailed short-term tourist rentals; Airbnb has not been able to convert millions of NY searches into sales.
Why it matters
This is Airbnb stretching beyond its core. The bet is that boutique hotel inventory plus Airbnb’s “young and affluent consumers” and “insane amount of data” on user preferences (per Stein) is a credible alternative to Booking.com and Expedia for hotel owners — and that business travellers, who prefer the predictability of hotels, can be drawn onto a platform that historically caters to leisure travellers. The move also offsets the growing pushback against short-term lets — from New York’s 2023 regulations to Barcelona’s anti-tourism protests — that has narrowed Airbnb’s runway in its core product.
The headwind is direct competitive escalation. The hotel chains themselves — Hilton, Marriott, InterContinental Hotels Group — are pursuing the same independent inventory through “soft” franchise and “conversion-friendly” partnerships, which let them add capacity without building hotels.
Takeaway
The hotels pilot is Airbnb conceding that pure short-term-let growth is over. The reception by independent hoteliers — driven by the actual commission spread vs. Booking and Expedia, and the volume Airbnb can deliver — will determine whether this becomes a real second engine or a defensive line. Watch the next earnings call for booking conversion in pilot cities.
Source: Financial Times, 18 April 2026, Stephanie Stacey.