All posts tagged: airbnb

Airbnb giving away World Cup tickets with select home bookings — here’s what to know

Airbnb giving away World Cup tickets with select home bookings — here’s what to know

Published by Daniella Wilson

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Airbnb has announced a new booking deal that could score guests tickets to the 2026 Fifa World Cup. The quadrennial international men’s soccer championship — jointly hosted across Canada, Mexico and the U.S. this year — is set to begin June 11, with an opening match between Mexico and South Africa at Mexico City Stadium. The 48-team tournament will be held in 16 cities across the three host countries, with the final scheduled for July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Throughout June and July, select Airbnb stays in the 16 cities will include free tickets to a scheduled match from the knockout stages to the final for each guest staying at the property. However, only listings with a soccer ball …

Airbnb’s Brian Chesky plans to launch a new AI lab

Airbnb’s Brian Chesky plans to launch a new AI lab

Published by skeptic

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has had enough of merely being an artificial intelligence kingmaker. He now plans to back a new AI lab of his own. The news, broken by Bloomberg and confirmed to TechCrunch by a person familiar with the situation, marks Chesky as one of many Silicon Valley machers who are unsatisfied with the models coming out of the frontier labs. While AirBnB has adopted AI coding tools, Chesky said last year it hasn’t struck an LLM partnership because existing products weren’t quite ready. Still, Chesky has plenty of insight. He met Sam Altman in 2006 through Y Combinator, which incubated Airbnb, and stayed in touch. When OpenAI took off, he began meeting regularly with Altman to offer advice about managing a hypergrowth tech company. Chesky, who was reportedly considered a potential OpenAI board member, helped broker Altman’s return to power after its board of directors fired the CEO for lack of candor. Chesky advised Altman on public relations and rallied support for him among Silicon Valley bigwigs. Now, however, he appears to …

Airbnb-backed WeRoad raises M to take its group travel platform to the US

Airbnb-backed WeRoad raises $58M to take its group travel platform to the US

Published by skeptic

WeRoad, the Milan-based group travel startup, has raised a $58 million Series C round led by Airbnb as it prepares for its first major expansion outside Europe. The funding brings the company’s total capital raised to roughly $100 million and will finance WeRoad’s push into the U.S., beginning with Austin. The new investment reflects a bet that the next generation of travel companies may look less like booking platforms and more like social platforms designed to facilitate real-world connections.  The U.S. launch also arrives as loneliness, particularly among younger consumers, has become both a public health concern and an emerging business opportunity. When much of the tech industry remains focused on AI, WeRoad is positioning itself as part of the growing “IRL economy,” a category of startups monetizing offline interaction rather than screen time. Companies like Timeleft, 222, and Pie are pursuing similar ideas through dinners, clubs, events, and community-based experiences. The idea behind WeRoad came from the founders—Paolo De Nadai, Fabio Bin, and Erika De Santi— seeking connection themselves.  “It started from a very …

I won’t enter an Airbnb unless I take this gadget with me

I won’t enter an Airbnb unless I take this gadget with me

Published by skeptic

You can never be too careful when you go away. You may want to put some safety measures into place when you’re leaving your home. These could include setting up smart home automations to have your lights turn on to make it appear you’re actually home. This is a base-level security protocol that makes a lot of sense for other people. Others may want to double-check their smart locks or turn on their security systems to alert the police if they go off. But what should you do from the other side? How do you protect yourself if you’re going on vacation and staying in a rental? Whether it’s VRBO, Airbnb, or any other rental platform, you are at the mercy of the owner of the space. You might want to bring some extra insurance to make sure you and your family stay safe. That’s part of the reason a hidden device detector should even be considered. Related I turned my old tablet into a smart home dashboard, and it’s perfect I use my 1st-gen …

Uber has always wanted to be more than a ride; now it has reason to hurry

Uber has always wanted to be more than a ride; now it has reason to hurry

Published by skeptic

For years, Uber talked about becoming a super app. Then Waymo started picking up passengers in San Francisco, and the conversation grew more urgent. The company has been trying to embed itself inside the AV industry — as a data provider, an investor, and a distribution platform — but the consumer-facing bet may be just as important. Two weeks ago, Uber held its annual GO-GET product event in New York and announced something its executives had been circling for a long time: users in the U.S. can now book hotels inside the Uber app, through a partnership with Expedia Group, with access to more than 700,000 properties worldwide. Uber One members — the company’s subscription tier at $9.99 a month — get 20% off a rotating list of 10,000 hotels and 10% back in credits. Vacation rentals through Vrbo will follow later this year, along with restaurant reservations via OpenTable. In the meantime, a “Shop for Me” feature lets users order from stores that aren’t even on the platform. The announcements, taken together, were the …

Cortis Experience Seduces Fans to Seoul as Airbnb Doubles Down on K-pop Strategy

Cortis Experience Seduces Fans to Seoul as Airbnb Doubles Down on K-pop Strategy

Published by Daniella Wilson

K-pop has not only conquered the world, it has brought the world to South Korea. That was the somewhat unsurprising headline finding of a new research study commissioned by Airbnb as part of its ongoing collaboration with some of the country’s biggest music stars. Last week, Airbnb threw open the doors to a neon-lit, fully immersive experience created in partnership with K-pop boy band Cortis. At the same time, the company quietly dropped an in-depth report titled “Korea Calling: How K-Culture Is Driving a New Generation of Travelers into Korea.” While the Cortis experience lit up social media as fans flocked to central Seoul in hopes of getting a glimpse of one of K-pop’s fastest-rising groups, the research study laid bare the savvy strategy behind the global travel brand’s growing efforts to align its identity in Korea with the country’s greatest cultural exports. Airbnb’s report, which was based on a survey of several thousand international guests to Korea, found that 94 percent of visitors and prospective travelers to the country say K-culture influenced their interest …

Here’s How Much San Francisco Tech Companies Pay for Police Protection

Here’s How Much San Francisco Tech Companies Pay for Police Protection

Published by skeptic

Elon Musk called violent crime in San Francisco “horrific” and moved the offices of his social media business X outside the city in 2024 because of safety and business considerations. Other local tech companies have attempted to address their security concerns by partnering directly with cops. Airbnb and Salesforce are among businesses that for years have contracted San Francisco police to protect their offices on a regular basis, according to public records obtained by WIRED. Airbnb, for example, spent roughly $428,443 for the presence of uniformed, armed officers in 2024, the most recent year for which complete data was received. Salesforce shelled out about $727,907 through a security vendor. The payment amounts have not been previously reported. Salesforce hired police to protect its offices in San Francisco’s tallest structure, known as Salesforce Tower, as well as a nearby building in the city’s busy downtown area. It also spent nearly $41,000 for officers at its TrailblazerDX 2024 conference hosted at the city’s convention center. The security practices of tech companies in San Francisco have received renewed …

Red paint attacks continue across London targeting suspected brothels

Red paint attacks continue across London targeting suspected brothels

Published by Sam Flores

A fresh attack has renewed concerns that gangsters are continuing to target rival brothels on the streets of London, leaving locals “traumatised”. Mystery surrounds these types of attack. There is no known evidence to suggest the people living in the targeted houses on Lowfield Road are running brothels or are in debt to loan sharks, but it follows a spate of similar incidents across London in recent times. Further east in the capital, Walthamstow has been a particular target where red paint has been splashed, smeared or daubed across multiple properties. One of the buildings is usually singled out with the allegation that it is a “brothel” — the word scrawled on to the exterior. In some cases, handwritten notes have been put through nearby letterboxes, identifying the same property as a brothel. Stella Creasy, the Labour and Cooperative MP for Walthamstow, has previously raised her concerns over these crimes of the night. Following a succession of sinister and still unexplained red paint attacks, she called out the police for failing to treat the repeated …

Best Los Angeles Airbnbs Near Universal Studios Hollywood​, California

Best Los Angeles Airbnbs Near Universal Studios Hollywood​, California

Published by Daniella Wilson

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, The Hollywood Reporter may receive an affiliate commission. Proximity, value, variety and hospitality (with bonus points for “cool factor”). That’s what we considered when narrowing down where to stay in L.A. near Universal Studios Hollywood. When zeroing in on the perfect Airbnb — especially when organizing a trip around a landmark — there are a few potential hurdles. Sometimes, it’s tricky to pinpoint a property’s exact location or the specifications of its surrounding area. Other times, its placement on Airbnb‘s virtual map isn’t entirely accurate (we ran into that a couple of times). And occasionally, hosts can be tough to get ahold of. Regardless, there are a lot of factors at play when booking an Airbnb as a non-local. When vetting rentals for this story, we spoke with each property manager directly to get the exact distance from their listing to the movie-studio-meets-theme-park, all indicated below (listings rarely include this information). Through this process, we also found the hosts of …

Airbnb is introducing a private car pick-up service

Airbnb is introducing a private car pick-up service

Published by skeptic

Airbnb announced Tuesday it is expanding its services feature with a new category for car pick-ups across 125 cities around the world. The company is partnering with transportation company Welcome Pickups to let users book a private car service in cities including Paris, Bali, and Mexico City. The travel company said that it has been running a pilot this year in Europe and Asia, where “thousands of guests” used it with an average rating of 4.96. Airbnb said that once you book a stay in a city where the service is available, you will see an option to schedule a private cab to the listing in the Trips tab of the Airbnb app. Users can view their cab reservation details and make changes directly from the app. “Airbnb Services are designed to enhance a guest’s stay, and our partnership with Welcome Pickups delivers that from the moment they arrive,” Dave Stephenson, chief business officer at Airbnb, said in a statement. The company said that it plans to expand this service to more cities and locations …