Can Airbnb become an everything app?
Airbnb is undergoing a bold transformation from a travel platform to a daily-use “superapp” offering local services and experiences, but its success hinges on whether users adopt new habits outside of their holidays, says Paul Armstrong
Airbnb is having a busy 2025. The company reported $2.27bn in revenue for Q1, a six per cent year-over-year increase that came alongside a softer-than-expected forecast for Q2, pushing the stock down over five per cent. But the numbers are not the story, they’re the backdrop to a sweeping, expensive and highly personal transformation being led by CEO Brian “founder mode” Chesky.
Only everything is changing. The recent relaunch of the Airbnb app marks the start of a new chapter. A platform once narrowly focused on short-term rentals now wants to be a daily-use product. The updated app introduces in-home services across 10 categories like personal chefs, trainers, stylists and massage therapists available in over 260 cities. These services are bookable independently of a lodging reservation, many starting below $50. Alongside this comes a revamped version of Airbnb Experiences, now offering nearly 20,000 curated events, tours and workshops, positioned as more premium and unique than the company’s earlier attempt.
Chesky’s framing is almost philosophical. Airbnb, in his words, should counter the isolating effects of mainstream tech, it’s not just a travel company, it’s, he says, “a global community where you can live, travel and belong anywhere.” That’s a big leap from renting a flat in Barcelona for four nights.
There’s also a clear strategic undercurrent. Airbnb’s move aligns with a long-running Silicon Valley ambition slash obsession: the “everything app”. Tencent’s WeChat and Southeast Asia’s Grab offer fully integrated mobile-first ecosystems that blend commerce, payments, transport, content and social. These platforms succeeded because of regional dynamics. Users in those markets are accustomed to closed ecosystems, and regulatory expectations around privacy and data are structurally different. Replicating that in the West is notoriously difficult and if you ask a smart cookie to name three examples they’ll likely fail.
Meta tried to bolt commerce onto social. Uber is bundling food, rides and freight. Elon Musk keeps insisting X will become a Western superapp, though no one can explain what that would actually mean. User expectations, regulatory scrutiny and entrenched app behaviours have blocked the path to superapp-dom.
An app for how you experience your stay
Airbnb thinks it can be the exception. The company already verifies identity, manages payments, handles disputes, and is associated with trust, hospitality and real-world logistics. Chesky wants to extend that into everyday services, positioning Airbnb as the interface not just for trips but for life. The app isn’t just for where you stay, it becomes the way you experience where you are. If that’s failing your sniff test, you’re not alone.
While it makes strategic sense on paper, the economics get harder. Airbnb’s core model works because of the mismatch between high-frequency supply and low-frequency demand. Hosts want bookings every week. Travellers book a few times a year. Airbnb earns its fee by bridging that gap. Local services flip the equation and really everyone feels like they’re the hero in the story. The rub? A user might book a haircut or a massage once, then go direct. Ask Treatwell. The provider has no reason to stay loyal to Airbnb if they can convert the booking into a recurring client. Trust matters less. Margin leaks fast.
Chesky has spent the last year in “founder mode”, overseeing every detail of the redesign from iconography to animation timing. He references Steve Jobs and Walt Disney, calling himself a disciple rather than a peer. Design has always been central to Airbnb’s identity. The new app reflects that. The question is whether craft and polish can overcome the cold realities of marketplace math, and depressed post-covid bump and trump tariff economics.
Previous failures around Airbnb Experiences are instructive. Chesky blames the last attempt on poor marketing and weak product execution. A more honest assessment is that the economics didn’t scale. Bespoke experiences are high-effort and low-margin. The only way to scale them without compromising quality is to raise prices, which kills demand. You end up with standardised products dressed up as local authenticity; exactly what Chesky wants to avoid.
Services may be a better fit. A chef or a trainer booked to enhance a short-term rental aligns with Airbnb’s DNA: temporary, high-trust, situational and it adds value to the core product. The real test comes with trying to move into recurring domestic services. Haircuts and home massages are habits, not moments. That space rewards platforms built for loyalty and retention, not just discovery.
A digital passport
The identity piece is even more speculative. Chesky imagines Airbnb profiles as something like a digital passport, which is persistent, verified and portable. A credential for navigating the world. Many have tried to own digital identity. Facebook Login, Apple ID, Google Accounts. None have become universal. The barriers are technical, legal and cultural. If Airbnb wants to play in this space, it will need more than UX, and will need to start pressing the flesh of many high up government officials across the world that previously it may have caused headaches.
There’s also pressure from below. Generative AI and agent-based travel planning are rising fast. Tools that can plan, book and adapt trips using large language models could chip away at Airbnb’s search and discovery layer. The push into services may be a hedge against that, but it’s also a response. Airbnb doesn’t just want to be a listing site with nice branding. It wants to be a logistics layer for real-world moments. Whether that’s a haircut in your flat or a chef in your holiday rental is up to the user.
Airbnb’s reinvention is coherent, bold and entirely dependent on user behaviour it cannot fully control. The superapp dream has broken better companies. Still, Airbnb has advantages others didn’t. A reputation for trust. A user base that already transacts with high-value, real-world outcomes. A design-led team that cares about detail. The opportunity is real. At the same time, expanding beyond travel means playing a different game. Different incentives, different economics, different retention loops. The future of Airbnb may depend less on UI polish and more on whether users form habits outside of holidays. Not impossible, but not easy. Essentially, Airbnb has chosen to take on…every service on the app store.
Thinking about how your company will be affected by, or utilise the changes, should be on the agenda. Investors should look past the interface and watch three things: will people book services without a stay? Will those services repeat? And will Airbnb still get paid after the second or third booking? If the answer is yes, Airbnb becomes something far bigger than a travel platform. If not, it’s a beautiful, but wasted, gamble. The verdict is pending.
Paul Armstrong is founder of TBD Group (including TBD+), and author of Disruptive Technologies.