Airbnb today (May 13) introduced new services, reimagined experiences and a refreshed app that offer travelers more than just a place to stay, per details shared with Marketing Dive. To educate consumers about the new features, the booking platform has revealed a new ad and a social-first marketing strategy.

Founded in 2008 as a marketplace for short-term rentals, the company has revolutionized travel — and faced its share of controversy — but notched more than $11 billion in revenue in 2024. The new launches recognize that consumers’ travel needs often extend beyond an apartment or vacation home. 

Airbnb Services look to replicate or build on the offerings of traditional hotels, including spa treatments; hair, makeup and nails; photography; and catering, prepared meals and on-site chefs. Airbnb Experiences is a relaunch of a current product that looks to meet travelers on the ground, and is at the heart of the company’s latest marketing efforts.

“Airbnb has always been about connecting people to the authentic version of communities and places,” said Hiroki Asai, global head of marketing for the company. “The way we've executed experiences is actually more a representation of the brand than even just homes are, and so the combination of the two really delivers on the promise of the original brand.”

More adventure, less checklist

At the heart of Airbnb’s latest marketing push is a 60-second spot, “The Grand Adventure,” that unravels an animated storybook about travel, from the carriage rides, steam locomotives and grand ocean liners of the past to the hallmarks of contemporary travel that feel like “less of an adventure [and] more of a checklist.” 

The ad positions Airbnb Experiences as a gateway to a “world full of wonder” where travelers can cook ramen with master chefs, explore with anthropologists and listen to jazz with musicians. The spot will air on TV, streaming and online in the U.S., Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, China and Korea throughout the summer.

“The illustration style we used was a great way for positioning us as an alternative to hotels, because it is a little bit of a conceptual argument. Trading in that fanciful way is a great way to deliver it without sounding like a pedantic school teacher,” Asai said. “We wanted to reveal this magical world that's out there, outside of the beaten path.”

The animation style shares a look and feel with “Get an Airbnb,” a 2023 campaign that brought the platform’s value propositions to life with animated miniatures. While that campaign was crafted by Buck Animation, “The Grand Adventure” was created by Airbnb’s in-house team. All advertising, marketing, design and product work on the new launch was created concurrently by teams working “shoulder to shoulder,” Asai said.

“I'm a firm believer that you need to develop the supply and the product experience while you're working on the customer communication, because if you can't explain it… you can't advertise it in 30 seconds,” the exec said.

‘Airbnb more than an Airbnb’

While Airbnb Experiences can be personalized and customized, they are designed for the way consumers research, plan and share travel experiences on social media; many of the experience hosts have their own social followings, as well. In kind, the marketing of the feature, beyond the 60-second spot, was built with a social-first strategy that anticipates travel searches on social eclipsing those on Google.

“We [can] tailor the type of experiences that we show to what you're searching for, to who you are, and we can even make sure that what we show you has availability, with the diversity of supply that we have and the variability of it, and the uniqueness of it all,” Asai said.

Airbnb has created more than a dozen social-only videos that highlight Airbnb Experiences in top travel destinations including Florence, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Mexico City, Miami, Milan, Paris, Rome, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Tokyo and Venice, with more to come. Searches for those cities on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube will deliver the videos with a call-to-action that delivers them directly to the booking page for those experiences.

“All of the work that we've done in the past has led up to this, from a technology perspective, the product perspective, the marketing, the operations, being able to work with celebrities… That's all been leading up to this idea of really going deep into a community and finding the local icons, the local creatives, the most interesting people within those communities, and putting them on the platform,” Asai explained.

Airbnb Experiences will also feature Airbnb Originals, which builds on last year’s launch of Icons that were hosted by major names in pop culture and opened up famous places in IP, from the emotional headquarters of “Inside Out 2” to the X-Mansion in “X-Men ‘97.” Megan Thee Stallion, Sabrina Carpenter and Patrick Mahomes have been tapped for Originals experiences.

“This is the first time in the history of the company where you can Airbnb more than an Airbnb,” Asai said. “‘Airbnb something’ has become colloquial, and now the concept… is stretching beyond homes and into experiences, services and who knows what after that.”