Airbnb's latest round of product rollout includes its Icons category, which showcases experiences such as a living room performance by Grammy-winning artist Doja Cat or an overnight hosted by Bollywood royalty Janhvi Kapoor in India. Hotels editor Christina Jelski got an update on the company's latest chapter from Jay Carney, Airbnb's head of global policy and communications.
Jay Carney
Q: Airbnb has occasionally offered limited-edition themed stays in the past, such as a Barbie's Malibu DreamHouse experience or a Shrek's Swamp stay in the Scottish Highlands. How does the Icons category build on that?
A: We've seen with these experiences, like the Barbie house or Shrek house, that these kinds of things tap into a level of excitement that brings people to Airbnb. There's a lot of attention just because of how unlikely and wonderful they are. And the excitement around it is bigger than just the opportunity to experience the stay.
We'll have such a variety of Icons, with new drops coming regularly, so there's always going to be a reason to come back and see which ones might be most appealing to you. Icons are a way of really getting people excited about the idea that Airbnb is more than just a place to stay.
Q: What's the process for booking an Icon experience?
A: They'll come online, and people are able to request a booking. They go from a high of about $97 all the way to $0. So, they're very affordable. The selection process is designed to be fair, so that everyone who requests to book is truly part of the process.
Q: How has Airbnb seen travel demand patterns evolve over the past few years?
A: We saw during the pandemic this dispersal of travel, as people were getting away from city centers and out to more rural, remote areas, which was a great way for people to explore all that Airbnb has to offer. We've seen a return to urban travel, but people didn't forget the great experience they had going to a place outside of traditional centers of tourism.
One of the things that's unique about us is we have listings in places where there aren't other or many other forms of accommodation. And we work deliberately with cities and countries around the world in dispersing travel. In Japan, for example, they've got very ambitious goals around tourism this year. But they're also really looking to get people to places that aren't just Tokyo and Kyoto but places out in other parts of the country that are astoundingly beautiful but relatively untraveled. And we have listings that help them do that.
Q: New York recently saw a significant crackdown on vacation rentals. How has Airbnb been impacted?
A: Fortunately, because we are so dispersed, no single city -- even New York -- is a significant part of Airbnb. It's less than 1% of our business. Having said that, we love New York, and we think it's a real loss for hosts and guests. We've seen incredible jacking up in pricing for hotels, no change in inventory for long-term leases or sales, and prices are still going up for homes in New York City. I mean, cost-conscious visitors are basically not coming. One of the things that we've always done in New York and elsewhere is offered alternatives that were more affordable and offered them in places that weren't Midtown or Times Square: places in outer boroughs and parts of Manhattan that aren't traditional tourist centers. We want and work toward reasonable, balanced regulation that works for cities and helps solve specific problems but allows our hosts to succeed and bring that economic activity to localities. We hope and expect that we'll get to a better place in New York.