Airbnb Trips launched yesterday with three key sections - Experiences, Places and Homes, with Flights and Services to be added in the future, taking it beyond simply offering accommodation.

The move follows a recent tie-up with Lufthansa, which saw the company sell flights for the first time.  

With Trips, Airbnb “aims to make it easy with one app to book most of your travel needs”.

Trip Itinerary is a new feature that brings together different aspects of a trip in one timeline, with the ability to book and add experiences or things to do.

Airbnb said over time this capability will evolve based on machine learning to dynamically suggest personalised and contextual recommendations during a trip.

“Airbnb’s vision is to ultimately cater for every aspect of a trip, making it both easy and magical from start to finish,” the firm said.

“Until now, Airbnb has been about homes,” said Brian Chesky, chief executive, Airbnb. “Airbnb is launching Trips, bringing together where you stay, what you do, and the people you meet all in one place.

“We want to make travel magical again by putting people back at the heart of every trip.”

Experiences will include activities designed and led by local experts, offering “unprecedented access and deep insights into communities and places that you wouldn’t otherwise come across”.

Examples are truffle hunting in Tuscany and experiencing the grime music scene in London.

Trips launches with around 500 Experiences in 12 cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Detroit, Havana, London, Paris, Florence, Nairobi, Cape Town, Tokyo and Seoul.

Hosts in those and a further 39 cities can now request to list an experience.

A number of experiences will also be available through non-profit organisations.

With insider guidebooks, Airbnb has identified “cultural experts and neighbourhood insiders” to recommend the “hidden gems” within their city.

The Places section also includes more than one million individual recommendations from Airbnb’s home hosts, recommending their favourite places in their neighbourhoods.

A partnership with restaurant booking platform, Resy, will make it possible for people in future to book tables at local restaurants directly through the Airbnb app.

Airbnb has also struck an exclusive partnership with Detour to offer access to experiential audio walking tours.

A "meet ups" section will let local businesses host one-off or regular events for Airbnb guests and locals to connect with each other.

The launch of Trips also sees the introduction of a new identity authentication process that the Airbnb Experiences community will be using.

Hosts and guests will be asked to scan an official government ID (for example a passport, or driving license) and then take a selfie. After the ID is authenticated, the ID and selfie will be reviewed to confirm that both pictures appear to match.

This new identity authentication step is required for all Experiences users, and is also currently being tested for homes bookings.

A new $1 million liability insurance programme is available for eligible Experience hosts.

What do you think? Does Airbnb’s latest launch pose a threat to UK agents? Email us here, or leave a comment below