Hotels listing on Airbnb is not a new thing. In fact, I wrote about how some hoteliers were doing everything they could to make the most of the platform despite integration issues almost a decade ago.
But adding thousands of independent and boutique properties and highlighting that is part of the short-term rental platform's 2026 summer release. Listing hotels on the platform suddenly seems like a much bigger focus for Airbnb.
In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said he's had to make a philosophical shift on hotels and admitted that they bring something to Airbnb-focused travelers.
"For many years, one of our original taglines was, 'Forget hotels,' he said. "I saw Airbnb as opposition to chain hotels.
"I was ideological about homes, and our customers weren’t as ideological as I was. Basically, there were three types of people: people who only book homes, people who only book hotels and, it turns out, most people are open to doing both. It was like billions of people coming to our store looking for something, and we didn’t always have it.
"There are reasons to use a hotel. I think it’s by trip type, not by segment. If I’m booking for tomorrow night, checking in at 11 p.m., and staying one night; I’m traveling for business; or I’m going to New York where Airbnb really doesn’t exist, a hotel is a really good option."
This is an interesting shift for a lot of reasons, including the fact that despite analysis showing hotels and Airbnb-listed accommodations not always being directly competitive, more people going to Airbnb to book hotels makes those listing directly competitive for attention at the very least.
One thing I think is absolutely worth keeping in mind is the fact that Airbnb is already a much bigger company than most others in the lodging space.
At the time of writing, Airbnb has a market cap of $77.5 billion, which is more than triple Expedia Group's $25.5 billion but obviously less than Booking Holdings' $120.2 billion.
In terms of nights booked, the volume breaks down in a pretty similar way. For the first quarter of 2026, Airbnb had 156.2 million nights and seats booked compared to 113.9 million room nights booked in Expedia and 338 million in Booking.
Keep that in mind. Airbnb is already booking more accommodations than Expedia's various sites, which have long been viewed as titans in the universe of hotel distribution.
What this ultimately means is hoteliers will need to be agile in their distribution strategies, keeping in mind they have increasing visibility in another major player.
While the hotel industry has long had a somewhat tense relationship with the online travel agencies because of commissions, I don't want to assume another major player in the space automatically is a bad thing — especially since so much of the OTA discussion of the last decade is still dictated by the thought that Expedia and Booking form a duopoly in the space.
Ultimately, you'll all be striving for more direct bookings in the end, but knowing you have a potential path to a new type of traveler should also excite more enterprising hoteliers.
Let me know what you think on LinkedIn or via email.
The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of CoStar News or CoStar Group and its affiliated companies. Bloggers published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to contact an editor with any questions or concern.