Airbnb branches into exclusive Austin experiences
Airbnb is launching a new tier of exclusive curated experiences that include cultivated programming in Austin.
Why it matters: The company is increasingly going beyond what it is best-known for, arranging home rentals for travelers, to meet a growing hunger for in-person experiences.
Driving the news: The so-called Originals is one of several new offerings announced at Airbnb's 2025 Summer Release event this month in Los Angeles.
What they're saying: Jay Carney, the company's global head of policy and communications, tells Axios that Originals events are the highest tier of experiences they have to offer.
"These are once-in-a-lifetime kinds of experiences because of who the host is and what they're offering. It's that combination of 'I can't believe I'm doing this with this person' and the fact you can only do it on Airbnb."
Airbnb has been offering "experiences" since 2016, but the new Originals promise to be more exclusive, with prices ranging from $20 to $200 per guest.
How it works: From the home page, search your city or the city you're visiting under the Experiences tab, select dates and the number of guests.
Originals will be labeled as such in the search results and you can book by clicking on the listing.
Zoom in: Architect Ben Heimsath tells Axios that the Hyde Park historic homes tour he leads exclusively through Airbnb focuses on how "Austin would be a different place" if not for the major events and personalities involved in the neighborhood's creation in the late 19th century and its preservation in the 1980s.
His 90-minute tours run $45 per person.
He wouldn't specify how much Airbnb takes, but he said: "It's a reasonable arrangement. I get to share my expertise, and later I can come back and take my wife out to dinner."
The next tour is scheduled for May 31.
Other Austin experiences include:
Eating Austin tacos with restaurateur C.K. Chin.
Practicing pickleball at Austin Pickle Ranch with professional pickleballer Brandon Nsekpong.
Taking a private tour of the home, garden and studio of noted Austin sculptor Charles Umlauf with Katie Robinson Edwards, the executive director and curator of the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum.
The intrigue: Heimsath says Airbnb approached him about doing the tour — not the other way around.
"One of the top reasons people use Airbnb is because they want to live like a local," Airbnb spokesperson Matt McNama tells Axios. "Sometimes it can be hard to find out what to do in a city. We want to connect people with what's so authentic about their city."
Airbnb also announced that Experiences will be "vetted for quality" and are now available in 650 cities worldwide.
Later this year, guests will be able to see who's going before they book, message the group or individual guests during the experience, and stay in touch afterward.
The bottom line: The vacation rental company is aiming to get people to use the app even if they aren't traveling.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Tom's Guide
2 hours ago
- Tom's Guide
5 best summer travel apps to help you have the perfect vacation
Summer travel is upon us, and so is the stress of planning and executing the perfect trip. While delays and mishaps are always possible, you can hit the road prepared thanks to help from mobile apps. Making sure your phone is equipped with everything from travel planners to route mappers, you can ensure that your vacation runs smoothly from the moment you start booking your travel to the time when you finally return home. To start, there are a few general types of apps you'll want to download, the details of which will vary based on your specific travel plans. If you're flying, it makes sense to install the app of your airline of choice so that you can easily check your flight status, access your boarding pass, track your luggage, and connect with customer service. With the app for your preferred hotel chain, you can manage your stay, redeem rewards, request amenities, and even unlock your room in some cases. If you have a vacation rental, through an outfit such as Airbnb or VRBO, be sure you have the app for access to your booking details and easy communication with hosts. You should also have a ride hailing app — such as Uber or Lyft — that provides service at your destination, and if you're driving, research which apps are used for paid street parking (ParkMobile, for example) so you don't have to spend time downloading and entering your payment details once you arrive. DoorDash or GrubHub can be useful for perusing and comparing menus in advance for food allergies and dietary restrictions. But beyond those basics, a few other apps can come in handy whenever you hit the road or take to the skies. Here are five other travel apps you should have on your phone now. Wanderlog is an all-in-one travel planner for everything from creating an itinerary to tracking expenses. Start building your trip with the basics — where and when — then invite travel companions if you're planning a trip with other people. Other Wanderlog tools let you add reservation details, explore restaurants and attractions, make a packing list, and create a budget. The app's basics are free, while a Pro subscription ($39.99/year) includes extras like live flight updates, route optimization, offline access, and syncing with Google Maps and Gmail to automatically pull in reservation details from confirmation emails. If you're road tripping, you can map your route and add roadside attractions and pit stops in Wanderlog. Speaking of which, Roadtrippers is another popular route planner that shows you interesting stops along your way, but the Android app has enough negative reviews to where I would suggest just using the sites web-based tools or turning to Wanderlog as my mobile trip planner. Download Wanderlog: Android, iOS Skyscanner is a search engine for flights, hotels, and car rentals that prioritizes good deals, so you can browse or search cheap options or set up alerts for price drops on your desired itinerary. This can be useful whether you're planning in advance or need a last-minute reservation mid-trip. Note that unlike online travel agencies (OTAs) — which generally allow you to book within their app — Skyscanner redirects you to the airline, hotel, or rental agency to complete your reservation. While this is an extra step up front, it avoids potential pitfalls of OTAs, like confusing booking and cancellation policies and generally worse customer service if something goes awry. Download Skyscanner: Android, iOS If you find yourself asking, 'Where is the nearest…' in the middle of a road trip, iExit is likely to have an answer. The app uses your device's location to display upcoming interstate exits and their amenities, from the basics like hotels, restaurants, and gas stations to banks, auto shops, grocery stores, and tourist attractions. You can view fuel prices and lodging rates and get distances and directions to destinations listed. Use iExit to help you decide when and where to stop without having to search for a specific location or scroll around a map. Download iExit: Android, iOS CityMapper is a journey planner that helps you navigate public transportation in major metro areas around the world — handy if your next trip to the big city doesn't include a rental car. Y With CityMapper, you can get real-time arrival, departure, and location data for buses, trains, subways as well as turn-by-turn directions with options for walking, bikeshare, and scooter rental. The app will also notify you of upcoming turns and stops, track service alerts, and calculate travel time so you can select the best route to your destination. Download CityMapper: Android, iOS If you don't know the language at your destination or are traveling to a region where multiple languages are spoken, add Google Translate to your device to facilitate communication. The app can translate from typed text, photos, or real-time bilingual conversations as well as instant camera feedback — pointed at signs, for example — and text inside other apps. To get started, choose your primary language and select the language to translate to from the more than 100 available in the app dropdown. Check Translate offline to download for offline use. (Not all languages have this feature.) Download Google Translate: Android, iOS
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
Jake Tapper's CNN ‘ratings drop' as he ‘pimps' Biden book
Jake Tapper, the co-author of an explosive book claiming the White House covered up Joe Biden's cognitive decline, is haemorrhaging viewers on his CNN show, it has been claimed. Media analysts attributed the apparent decline to the relentless hawking of his book Original Sin by Mr Tapper and Alex Thompson of Axios. According to the Nielsen Ratings, The Lead, Mr Tapper's daily show averaged 525,000 viewers from April 28 to May 5, representing a 25 per cent drop on the same period last year. 'Tapper is saying in his new book, we saw what was going on, but we didn't tell you,' Andrew Selepak, media professor at Florida University, told The Telegraph. 'Well, that kind of blows up any credibility. And if you're looking at a news host to get news from, they basically are now telling you I wasn't really giving you the news.' 'There's not a lot of interest in consuming that content,' he added. 'That lack of credibility makes you go, why should I continue to consume you? If I'm not going to get the truth from you, I might as well watch Netflix.' Other factors have also contributed to plummeting Nielsen ratings. Some of the decline can be attributed to more viewers 'cutting the cord' and watching the show through streaming services, and the figures do not include viewers outside the US. Greater political polarisation has also been a factor, according to Prof Selepak, with MSNBC attracting viewers from the Left and Fox from the Right at CNN's expense. However, there is also evidence of public disenchantment at the amount of publicity given to the book, on social media. Liberal journalist Glenn Greenwald was scathing on X. He ridiculed Mr Tapper for having woken up after 30 years in journalism and realised 'the first axiom of Journalism 101: politicians and governments lie and journalists shouldn't blindly believe them'. Another X user, Doug Wright, imagined a CNN production meeting. 'Everyone pimp the book into every news story no matter how irrelevant. Remember, you get paid by the book mentioned.' Comedian Jon Stewart could scarcely hide his disdain. 'How do you pivot from excitedly promoting your anchor's book to sombrely and respectfully promoting your anchor's book? 'You frame this news as even more of an excuse to buy this book. Some observers might think, do these CNN people work on commission?' Christopher Galdieri, professor of politics at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, told The Telegraph that Mr Tapper was paying the price for his relentless search for publicity for his book. 'Tapper has been promoting his book about Biden non-stop. And again, I think if you are a Democrat who liked Biden, you're probably not enjoying that very much. 'And it probably seems disproportionate. You've got all the Trump stuff going on, you've got all the Doge stuff, all the tariffs, all the deportations. 'Just go down the whole list of stuff Trump is up to, and Tapper's main focus seems to be relitigating the fact that Joe Biden was old.' A CNN spokesman told The Telegraph: 'The award-winning program The Lead with Jake Tapper reaches broad global audiences across CNN, CNN International and Max's streaming platform. 'No single metric can capture the true reach and impact of a programme driving the national conversation.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Axios
12 hours ago
- Axios
One photo, one post, one heartwarming return
What happens in Vegas ... sometimes ends up on Facebook and back in your mailbox. Driving the news: Jane Moon of Seattle thought a treasured photo of her and her boyfriend at EDC Las Vegas 2025 — an electronic music festival held last month — was gone for good after she lost the Polaroid at the airport. That is, until a stranger found it and posted it in a Facebook group: "I know I'd be heartbroken to lose this if it were mine." A friend alerted Moon to the post before she had even finished unpacking, she told Axios. Why it matters: The photo, tucked into Moon's passport for safekeeping, marked the first anniversary of the day the couple met — at EDC, exactly a year earlier. "It was a special photo from a really special moment," Moon said. State of play: Moon, 29, lives in Seattle and is taking over her family's bubble tea business; Do, 28, is an aerospace mechanic in San Jose, Moon said.
