Airbnb launches new platform for facilitating hotel distribution

Thursday, February 8, 2018

Airbnb is all set to permit hotels and other accommodation providers to list on the site for the very first time via an official third party distribution network.

SiteMinder would be the first platform to act as a channel manager on an international scale so that its portfolio of properties might be featured alongside the existing properties from the hosts of Airbnb.

The deal is however, not exclusive.

SiteMinder is the first of several distribution platforms that are expected to be offered connection rights to Airbnb over time.

This connection would be available from March 2018. But SiteMinder has been working with a selected number of hotels in various markets across the world to test the service.

Hotels and B&Bs have listed on Airbnb in the past.

However they have done it so independently and not via a third party distribution service.

In a signal Airbnb has the online travel agencies in its sights. The company states that it would charge a service fee for accommodation providers and hotels in the region of 3% to 5% or much lower that it claims, as compared to OTAs that can charge as much as 30%.

Airbnb would also not require hosts to sign contracts and it would manage all transactions and payments.

SiteMinder has over 28,000 hotels that are connected to its channel manager platform and states that it anticipates ‘quite significant interest’ in the opportunity to list on Airbnb from inside its customer base.

Mike Ford, the managing director stated that they are quite excited and that this story of Airbnb is phenomenal. He also feels that to be selected as their first global hotel technology partner, to be able to work together with the Airbnb team on their first real-time connection so that they can better support hotel business throughout the world.

Besides, the company is also keen to include properties offering local tours, utilizing local beverages and produce.

Airbnb is expected to permit chain hotels to participate in the program but is pushing the ‘unique experience’ angle from those it wants to list on the site.

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