Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb Inc., at the Airbnb Annual Product Event in San Francisco, USA, on Wednesday, May 20, 2026.
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airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says the rental platform is Amazon The company is adding hotels and new services as it aims to become the be-all-end-all app for travelers.
CEO Brian Chesky told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin: “At some point, we’re going to have dozens, maybe hundreds of categories, like Amazon.” “I think we can at least build a little bit of an Amazon with services for travel and life.”
Airbnb on Wednesday added independent hotels and services to its app, including car rentals, grocery delivery and luggage storage, in its latest expansion beyond home rentals.
Guests can also book boutique hotels on Airbnb, and the company is incentivizing users with up to 15% platform credits.
Chesky said the new additions are based on growing service needs in the “highly fragmented” travel and lifestyle market. He told CNBC the company would also consider adding equipment rentals for activities like surfing and skiing, as well as gym passes.
Airbnb is in the midst of a multi-phase redesign after backtracking on its initial expansion plans during the Covid-19 pandemic. Last summer, the company drastically revised its app design and launched a service business consisting of 10 categories.
Since then, Airbnb has introduced social features to its platform and updated its artificial intelligence chatbot.
The company’s AI strategy will also be further upgraded this year.
Airbnb said its chatbot tool will now be able to resolve booking issues within chat and will add AI capabilities to summarize guest reviews. Later this year, the company plans to introduce an AI voice assistant in its chatbot and AI-generated list summaries.
Business chief Dave Stephenson said Airbnb uses a combination of open source and tools from large language model makers for its AI capabilities.
“We’re very smart about using the right model for the right purpose, which is also why we’re saying we’ll end up using this combination,” he said.
Chesky said the AI market is moving much faster than expected, but there is a high concentration of companies competing in the same market. He believes consumer AI is the “next frontier” as people’s lifestyles change.
“I want to warn people who are putting all their money into it right now thinking there are only going to be a few winners,” he says. “I think the biggest winners in AI are yet to emerge.”
As the summer season begins, the travel industry is suffering from soaring fuel prices due to the ongoing war in Iran.
Airbnb announced earlier this month that it was seeing a “slight increase” in cancellations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific due to the war. The company also expects a 100 basis point headwind for night and seat reservations this quarter.
Chesky said Airbnb is one of the “most resilient” travel companies in the world because it is exposed to many geographic regions and traveler groups and is typically more affordable.
“What we’re seeing is that when there’s economic uncertainty, people start making last-minute travel plans,” he said.
