The Airbnb effect continues – Jet Airways and ANA partnerships

Whether the hotel industry likes it or not, it seems - at the moment anyway - Airbnb is here to stay. According to the organisation, growth is happening quickly and expansion even faster, with accommodation existing in more than 65,000 cities and 191 countries. It is evident that as they grow, there is continual pressure to find new markets and more opportunity.

In late Mar-2017, Jetstar announced it was partnering with Airbnb to allow customers to book Airbnb accommodation via the Jetstar website. Jetstar became the fourth airline partner globally for Airbnb, who also has agreements with Virgin America, Delta Airways and Qantas (Jetstar's parent airline).

Since then, the home sharing company has partnered with another two airlines including India's Jet Airways, which was announced in Aug-2017, and most recently Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA) and its low coast counterpart, Peach.

Both agreements mean the organisations will jointly operate websites which allow passengers to book accommodation and air tickets together, while earning points on the respective airline frequent flyer programmes, if they reserve Airbnb properties through the airlines websites.

Jet Airways CCO Jayaraj Shanmugam said: "An increasing number of Indian travellers are embracing the fresh and highly personalised experiences that a platform like Airbnb offers. Our focus on being innovative and offering differentiated travel experiences enables us to anticipate the changing needs of our guests and recognise trends much earlier than the market, thus allowing us to offer exciting travel related initiatives".

Newly formed French low cost carrier, Joon has also collaborated with Airbnb but to a somewhat lesser scale, offering travellers the option to book Airbnb's Travel Experiences in Paris, Lisbon, Barcelona and Berlin.

Airlines aren't the only partnerships in mind for the accommodation provider, who seems to be targeting a variety of industries. According to Airbnb, in the first six months of launching 'Airbnb for Business', more than 50,000 employees of more than 5,000 businesses completed bookings. This was an opportunity the organisation jumped on in 2016, with key corporate travel agents such as BCD Travel and Carlson Wagonlit Travel. Airbnb was able to integrate data solutions for business travel with BCD Travel, providing customers with data based on security and risk management. They also released key findings in conjunction with CWT Solutions about the business traveller by analysing trends.