Airbnb looks to tap millennials, Gen Z in India with a new app

Online accommodation hosting platform Airbnb is tapping into the huge population of millennials and Gen Z in India to drive its growth, according to its Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Nathan Blecharczyk.

The company, which has introduced Airbnb Services and Airbnb Experiences along with an all-new app, is bullish that its experiences feature, which allows travellers to explore a city with local guides, will offer good growth opportunities in the Indian market, Blecharczyk told PTI.

"India is an incredibly important market for Airbnb...to state the obvious, the largest (population-wise) country in the world, and the largest population of young people, specifically millennials and Gen Z, that's the target audience for Airbnb," he said when asked how it is looking at the Indian market.

These young people, who want to experience the world, have a spirit of adventure and love the opportunity to stay in a home and have a unique experience, and to be able to bring friends with them, Blecharczyk added.

"So that's our target audience, and we've seen great success with India. We've seen a 40 per cent increase in the number of millennials and Gen Z booking on Airbnb year over year. If you look at Q4 of 2024 relative to Q4 of 2023, we've seen a 40% increase in those young people using Airbnb. That is a great growth trajectory," he asserted.

He further said, "We see that 90 per cent of our first-time guests from India are these young people. They are the ones adopting Airbnb. This is really a great sign for us that we're tapping into this huge population. It is our target audience, and we're seeing great traction with them."

Stating that 90% of Indian travellers on Airbnb choose "their destination, having a certain idea in their mind of what they want to experience", he said, "...they want to go to the top spots, the top destinations that are trending right now for summer international travel. It's London, it's Amsterdam, it's Paris, it's the places that they see the (Bollywood) stars going to."

He further said, "Getting to meet a local person, getting to meet other travellers over, making pasta or pastries with a Michelin star chef or someone who's a real expert, I think that's going to be an exciting experience for young Indian travellers."

Under Airbnb Services, the company launched 10 categories of services which travellers can book, such as fully customisable in-home meals from professional chefs, personalised photo sessions from experienced photographers; massage by certified therapists and training such as Yoga, strength training and more with personal trainers, including renowned fitness professionals and world champion athletes.

Commenting on the Indian domestic market, he said it is "certainly very large in India and growing very quickly. We see great growth there as well, and we think that's an opportunity for sure, especially even with experiences".

Elaborating, Blecharczyk said, "When we did surveys, Indian travellers told us that 50 per cent of them would be interested in doing these experiences on their own in their own city. We talked about it as a travel use case, but actually, people are looking to have interesting things to do and meet people in authentic ways."

Asked about the impact of the India-Pakistan military conflict, he did not offer a specific comment while wishing a "swift and peaceful resolution", but said "around the world, disruptions happen, and what we see is that there's still a strong interest to travel".

There might be a change in the travel pattern. The people decide they are not going to go to one place but to another, but they still travel, he added.

"We saw this during COVID-19, and we've seen this with other conflicts. From the Airbnb perspective, we have homes in over 190 countries, and wherever you might want to go, we have something to offer you," Blecharczyk.