Airbnb has been accused of unfairly “recruiting” their tour guides by two competing tour platforms – the Canadian ToursByLocals and the Dutch Withlocals.
The two platforms accuse Airbnb of attempting to recruit their tour guides by circumventing their terms of use and violating fair competition rules.
At the heart of the tension is the recently relaunched Airbnb Experiences service, which is attempting to enrich its offering of local experiences and activities worldwide. But, according to the complaints, the method Airbnb allegedly followed has caused a strong backlash.
The complaints
ToursByLocals revealed that it identified 14 different accounts on its platform that had been created from Airbnb-related email addresses. These accounts, according to the company’s CEO Lisa Chen, were used to directly reach out to tour guides, suggesting they move their services to Airbnb Experiences.
In a statement, Chen said:
“There is a better way to grow the travel experience sector and it is not through scraping platforms or recruiting hosts from other agencies. Our model is based on empowering local professionals and creating meaningful experiences for travellers. Undermining this trust breaks the market instead of growing it.”
According to an example given by the company, one of the messages sent to a tour guide stated:
“Hi [tour guide name], I work in the Airbnb Experiences team and would like to make a quick call to see if we can include your tours on the Airbnb platform. Please contact [email] to arrange a call.”
ToursByLocals, which works with more than 5,000 tour guides in 175 countries, proceeded to delete the accounts in question, describing the practice as a violation of its terms of use.
Similar complaint from Withlocals
In the same vein, the CEO of Withlocals, Matthijs Keij, chose to publicise the issue via LinkedIn, in a more caustic tone:
“Hey Airbnb, we see you! Congratulations on the new launch of the Experiences platform – exciting times! But creating multiple accounts on our platform with an email like @ext.airbnb.com to recruit our hosts? Call it a bold move… but not exactly fair play.”
Withlocals, like ToursByLocals, strictly prohibits business recruitment through its platform.
What Airbnb responds
Airbnb has not made an official comment on the matter. However, a source close to the company told Skift that the practice is not part of the company’s broader strategy and that it no longer takes place on either ToursByLocals or Withlocals. The same source claimed that this activity was on a limited scale.
The need for immediate development of the Experiences service
The timing of the complaints is not accidental. Airbnb is in a critical phase of upgrading its Experiences service, which it relaunched in May with the aim of turning it into a new billion-dollar resource. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has publicly stated the company’s intention to continually create new business units with billions in revenue.
In addition to recruiting new tour operators, Airbnb has also made technical improvements: now experience providers can integrate with the platform through third parties such as FareHarbor – a subsidiary of Booking Holdings – instead of requiring a direct interface with Airbnb.
The conflict brings to light the challenges facing major platforms in the competitive travel experience space. On the one hand, Airbnb is trying to dynamically grow a sector that still has significant room for profitability. On the other hand, smaller, niche platforms are asserting themselves to protect their community and ethics.
