Airbnb is unlikely to let outside AI agents such as Meta’s Muse book accommodation for users, chief executive Brian Chesky said in an interview published on 3 October, Nikkei Asia reported.
Key points
- Chesky said Airbnb was unlikely to open its platform to outside booking agents such as Muse.
- Muse can search for travel options and complete bookings directly with airlines or hotels.
- Airbnb shares fell 6% in morning trading on 23 September, alongside declines at Expedia and Booking Holdings.
Chesky’s position on Airbnb bookings
Chesky’s comments concern agents operating outside Airbnb’s platform. Such software is designed to browse websites and carry out transactions for users. He argued that “Planning travel is entertainment” as he set out his position on allowing an agent to make an accommodation booking.
Nikkei Asia described the position as part of a concern among travel companies that AI assistants could reduce their direct contact with customers. Chesky’s stated stance is prospective: he said Airbnb was unlikely to permit outside agents to book, rather than announcing a change to its booking system.
The distinction matters for the route a customer takes to a reservation. An assistant that searches and completes a purchase on a user’s behalf can handle steps that would otherwise take place on a travel company’s website. Chesky’s comments put the point of purchase, rather than an agent’s ability to recommend a stay, at the centre of Airbnb’s position.
Muse’s route to hotels and airlines
Muse can search and compare travel options, then complete a booking directly with an airline or hotel, Yahoo Finance reported. That route can bypass an aggregator and the fee attached to its role in the transaction. For a platform that relies on customers completing bookings through its service, the commercial question is where the customer finishes the purchase.
The examples differ across travel businesses. Muse’s ability to transact with an airline or hotel concerns bookings made with those suppliers. Chesky was addressing whether Airbnb itself would give an outside agent access to book accommodation for its users. The reported capabilities of Muse do not amount to an Airbnb decision to allow that access.
One investor offered a more direct challenge to Airbnb’s position. In an account of a podcast interview published on 1 October, TechFlow reported that an investor using the name Mostly Borrowed Ideas sold his Airbnb holding and increased his Meta position after testing Muse. The investor said the agent had suggested accommodation using his past stays and Instagram videos he had saved.
In the investor’s account, Muse offered a way to book one property directly at a price 60% below the Airbnb price. That account is an investor’s description of a test, rather than a company-wide measure of prices or bookings. He predicted that Airbnb’s direct traffic would decline over the next 5–10 years.
Airbnb fell 6% in September trading
Travel-booking shares declined in morning trading on 23 September as investors assessed Muse’s potential to bypass booking platforms. Expedia fell 7%, Airbnb declined 6% and Booking Holdings lost 5%, Yahoo Finance reported. Their falls exceeded the 2% decline in the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund and the 1% drop in the Invesco QQQ Trust.
The three companies occupied different positions in that comparison. Yahoo Finance assessed Expedia as more exposed to a customer booking directly with a supplier, while describing Airbnb’s listings as exclusive to its platform. An AI assistant that takes a traveller straight to an airline or hotel poses a different transaction risk from one seeking access to Airbnb accommodation.
AI Affairs previously reported that Meta gained nearly 30% in September as Muse weighed on service stocks. On 23 September, Meta shares rose 2% in the same morning session in which the three travel-booking companies declined.
