Airbnb Inc. is on a mission to be more than a home-sharing platform. It wants to be a flight booker, an itinerary planner and a vacation-home manager. To become a global travel behemoth, Airbnb is considering a combination of acquisitions and partnership deals to quickly grow its portfolio, according to three people with knowledge of Airbnb’s plans.
The company’s targets are in luxury tourism, airfare aggregation, group payments and guest-management, said the people, who asked not to be identified because Airbnb hasn’t authorized them to speak publicly. Airbnb is also focused on doing deals in China and India, the people said.
Airbnb declined to comment on specifics of its business plans. “We are always looking to provide our community with access to new and different options, but we have no announcements to make,” Nick Papas, a spokesman for Airbnb, wrote in an e-mail. One of the people said acquisitions are not a material part of the company’s strategy and that Airbnb does not believe it needs to rely on acquisitions to grow.
Read original article
