Airbnb launches Events tool – interactive maps, local embedding and personalised landing pages
Share
Airbnb has launched its new tool equipping event organisers with the ability to create personalised interactive maps for attendees.
Airbnb this week announced its ‘Airbnb for Events’ tool, creating interactive maps showing available Airbnb accommodation surrounding particular events. The tool went live yesterday and allows event planners to embed an Airbnb widget directly into their event website, with an accompanying tailored landing page on the Airbnb site.
Piloting the concept at the Adelaide Fringe festival earlier this year, the Events tool allowed visitors to browse Airbnb listings in the surrounding areas of the festival and suggested travel times between the two sites.
“Following the success of this pilot project, we’re excited to see how it could be expanded to include the hundreds of suburban and regional events held as part of our festival each year,” says Adelaide Fringe director and CEO Heather Croall.
Airbnb says it is already planning to expand upon the Events tool with event registration, ticketing platforms, event management platforms, wedding platforms, trip planners and city guides.
“Business events are important drivers of the local economy and this new feature of the Airbnb offering will create some easy pathways to booking event accommodation,” says Joyce DiMascio, chief executive at the Exhibition and Event Association of Australasia.
“We support innovation that gives consumers more ways to access their preferred style of accommodation whether that is in traditional hotel accommodation or home-style accommodation through platforms like Airbnb.”
Earlier this year Airbnb extended its services to professional accommodation vendors in an ‘open letter from Airbnb to boutique hotel and B+B owners’. The travel platform challenged the likes of Expedia and Booking.com, saying it could offer better service than traditional online travel agencies (OTAs).
The Events tool is available for organisers to try now and has already seen use from events brands Insider, Inspirock, Picatic, RSVPify, Taquilla, and WeddingWire.
Further Reading:
