Airbnb, the popular accommodation-booking platform, is eyeing a pie of the rising user base of digital assets.
Edited by NDTV Business Desk
While trading in cryptocurrency rose to unprecedented levels last year, investors hope the new year would also be rewarding. Multiple platforms are trying to tap the emerging market with a host of services to their customers. These include an option to pay in crypto coins for goods and services people avail. Airbnb, the popular accommodation-booking platform, is eyeing a pie of the rising user base of digital assets. Its CEO Brian Chesky has said that the top feature users want Airbnb to launch, in 2022, is to be able to pay for bookings in cryptocurrency.
This demand was revealed during a Twitter survey he conducted recently. Chesky asked Twitter users, “If Airbnb could launch anything in 2022, what would it be?” Two days later, he posted the results by sifting through the nearly 4,000 suggestions he received. The top six were:
1. Crypto payments
2. Clear pricing displays
3. Guest loyalty program
4. Updated cleaning fees
5. More long-term stays & discounts
6. Better customer service
The 40-year-old billionaire CEO said he is already working on most of them and he will look into others now.
Chesky said his company, which currently accepts Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal as payment methods, has seen a payments volume worth $336 billion since 2013. Many users suggested that he should start by accepting Bitcoin, Ethereum and Shiba Inu.
Crypto payments for accommodation booking would likely be welcomed by most cryptocurrency users as they currently face issues when making international payments. With crypto, this issue could be resolved.
This isn’t the first time Chesky has spoken about Airbnb exploring crypto payments. He said, in an interview in September last year, that people have continuously asked for crypto payments on the platform.
Source. ndtv.com