Airbnb to launch travel-planning agent in first half of 2027
Airbnb says the agent will compose maps, photos, and itineraries around each request and handle refunds and rebooking during trips.
Summary
In brief
- Airbnb plans to release its own travel agent in the first half of 2027
- The agent will assemble maps, photos, and itineraries instead of replying in text
- Airbnb's third-quarter revenue rose 19% to $4.87 billion, beating estimates
Airbnb will launch its own travel agent in the first half of 2027, the company said in its third-quarter shareholder letter on Thursday, narrowing an earlier promise of a release sometime within the next year.
The plan is a bet that travelers will want a dedicated tool rather than general-purpose agents, software that carries out multi-step tasks for a user. Chief Executive Brian Chesky told analysts on the earnings call that people will not use one agent for everything.
“Today’s AI agents like Muse and Instinct are good at simple routine tasks like making a restaurant reservation or scheduling an appointment. But planning a trip is different,” Chesky said, according to TechCrunch’s report. He said 80% of travelers say they enjoy spending time researching trips.
Rather than replying in text like a chatbot, the agent will draw on a library of hundreds of travel-specific interface components, including maps, photos, comparisons, calendars, and itineraries, and assemble them in real time around each request, Chesky said. He described the result as feeling “a little bit like generative UI,” screens generated on the fly for each query.
The company said the agent will also help guests during a stay, from changing a reservation or resolving a payment issue to refunds, rebooking, and 24-hour safety support. “These are things an outside agent can’t easily do on its own,” Airbnb wrote in the letter.
The announcement came with third-quarter revenue up 19% to $4.87 billion, above Wall Street estimates, and a raised forecast for 2026 revenue growth in the high teens, up from the mid-teens. “Airbnb is back in growth mode,” Chesky said, adding that the quarter brought the company’s fastest revenue growth in more than three years.
Separately, Airbnb disclosed an agreement that could allow it to invest in and license technology from a secretive AI startup that Chesky controls, The Information reported on Thursday, with some details in a securities filing. Chesky has funded the lab himself so far, the outlet reported, citing a person with knowledge of his plans. Chief Technology Officer Ahmad Al-Dahle, who joined Airbnb in January after running parts of Meta’s AI organization, has been advising the startup.
Chesky, who founded Airbnb nearly two decades ago, had sketched out the approach in earlier interviews, telling TechCrunch in October that any agent the company built should not take away from the inspiration and browsing of trip planning. Over time Airbnb expects the agent to cover services and experiences as well as homes and hotels, two areas that became a bigger focus after its app redesign in 2025.