Airbnb wants to encourage home sharing

Airbnb, a privately-held global company that operates hospitality facilities, has plans to encourage more people in India to know the benefits of home sharing and make them opt for the home-sharing platform.

Members can use the service to arrange or offer lodging, primarily homestays, or tourism experiences. The experiences includes activities designed and led by inspiring locals, said India country manager for Airbnb, Amanpreet Bajaj.

The company, which is accessible through websites and mobile apps, does not own any property nor does it host events but as a broker it receives commissions from every booking.

"Our biggest endeavour is to ensure that more people in India get aware of staying on a home-sharing network because it provides insights of the one's culture. It has also some other benefits and I want to spread the benefits of home sharing," Amanpreet told IANS recently during the Australian Open, when Indian tennis player Rohan Bopanna stayed in one of Airbnb homestays.

He said that Australia is now among the top five destinations for Indian travellers and slowly people are getting aware about this platform.

"Australia is now one of the top five destinations for Indian tourists. One of the key things which we do in India is to primarily understand what are the key passion points that drive people to a particular destination.

"So our endeavour in India is primarily to share more stories of people who have been to Australia through their social channels or some other channels and highlight some of these key destinations and most importantly share these stories with others."

Amanpreet also said that the marketing of Airbnb depends a lot on word-of-mouth.

"If you look at our platform Airbnb, it depends a lot on story-telling, word-of-mouth is one of the key drivers for our growth in the country. If one has a good experience that person will surely share the stories with others which might encourage more people to travel and start home-sharing."

Commenting on Airbnb's next aim, he said: "Over the last few years, we have seen good growth in India and we want to continue with the momentum."

"It is still early days of our business in India, as it is one of the key strategic markets for Airbnb globally and we have a vision that we want to have one billion people using Airbnb by 2027. I believe India will contribute in a large number in that one billion people"

--IANS

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