Airbnb Now Wants to Sell You Hotel Rooms Too

Airbnb is stepping onto hotel turf. The home-rental giant just launched a pilot program letting users browse and book boutique hotels alongside the usual private home listings.

The pilot is live in New York City, Los Angeles, and several other cities. It's a clear play to expand accommodation options and juice growth beyond its core home-sharing business.

But analysts aren't handing out easy wins. The move puts Airbnb in direct competition with entrenched hotel booking platforms — think Booking.com and Expedia — that have dominated the hotel distribution game for years. Stiff competition awaits.

For Airbnb, the bet is straightforward: more inventory types mean more bookings. Whether travelers actually want to book a hotel through Airbnb instead of dedicated platforms is the billion-dollar question the pilot aims to answer.