Booking.com says it’s beating Airbnb at its very own sport of renting out houses and flats to tourists.
Since 2007, 748 million guests have stayed at houses, apartments, or particular listings like yurts and igloos listed on Booking.com, consistent with its parent company, Booking Holdings. During that same term, Airbnb says 500 million visitors have stayed at one of its listings.
The numbers display heated opposition between the long-time travel service Booking.com and its buzzy home condo competitor, Airbnb. Booking, a big participant in motel reservations, wants the sector to recognise that it’s additionally a powerhouse in domestic rentals.
“It is developing quicker than our centre enterprise, and we’re thrilled with that,” said Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel.
Booking’s timing for patting itself on the back for returning approximately home rentals loosely coincides with Airbnb’s expected filing for an initial public offering sometime later this year. A filing could deliver marketplace watchers a study of Airbnb’s financial performance and allow them to see how it measures up against rival Booking.
If whatever, it’s ramping it up, specifically inside the U.S., in which Fogel believes the business enterprise nevertheless has sufficient room for growth after years of specializing in Europe. The company declined to reveal details about the dimensions of its European commercial enterprise, which is its largest market, partially a result of its roots in Amsterdam. “When you examine our marketplace share inside the home region, we’re not as high in the U.S. As a competitor of ours,” stated Fogel, averting mentioning Airbnb by name. “So we need to make certain the advertising efforts are growing emblem focus in the U.S.”
Fogel’s plans to make Booking, which also owns Kayak, Rentalcars.com, and OpenTable, a one-stop shop for the journey. That consists of the use of its existing brands to offer more customised services. For instance, guests who booked flights via Kayak should, after landing, acquire restaurant pointers based on their favourite meals or purchase tickets from a list of close by points of interest.
Fogel says he also wishes Booking to do a higher activity of going into advertising for its corporations. For example, Booking these days started out allowing customers to use their loyalty factors from OpenTable on Kayak for hotel accommodations.
