Airbnb adds car rentals and AI booking tools

Airbnb rolled out four new service categories to its mobile app this month, including grocery delivery, airport pickups, luggage storage, and car rentals.

All of the new offerings are designed to keep travelers from juggling multiple booking platforms.

Nearly a quarter of Airbnb guests rent a car during their stay, and the company now offers a 20 percent credit back toward the next booking when users rent through the app for the first time.

Three AI-powered features went live alongside the service expansion.

“I imagine one day we’ll have dozens, possibly even hundreds of categories, just like Amazon,” Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin. “I think we can build a little bit, like an Amazon for services, at least for traveling and living.”

The first synthesizes Airbnb’s one billion guest and host reviews to surface location quality, amenities, and family-friendliness without requiring users to scroll through hundreds of entries.

‘Travel shouldn’t just be convenient. It should be meaningful. The best trips help you explore, learn and come home a little different than when you left. That’s what we’re building at Airbnb,” Chesky noted in a press release.

What the AI tools do for operators

An AI-powered comparison view that generates written summaries for each wishlisted property and presents them side by side will launch later in 2026. The third feature is an expanded AI customer support assistant that loads trip details before the conversation starts, eliminating the need for guests to re-explain their situation from scratch.

Related: Airbnb launches boutique hotels and AI review tools

A new shared itinerary feature shows reservations alongside nearby restaurants, experiences, and things to do on a map in the Trips tab, with travel times calculated from the stay. The platform also began offering boutique and independent hotels through the app.

The updates are live now for iOS and Android users globally. Operators using dynamic pricing platforms should watch how the AI review synthesis affects guest behavior — if synthesized reviews reduce booking friction, conversion rates on well-reviewed properties could shift as early as Q3 2026.