Three competitors of Airbnb Experiences are:
- Vayable
- SideTour/Groupon
- TripAdvisor Experiences
Among these competitors, TripAdvisor and SideTour/Groupon appear to be posing a fairly significant threat to Airbnb Experiences, whereas Vayable's growth appears to have been almost entirely flat within the past year suggesting it likely is not capturing any significant shares within the market. A deep dive of these findings and the methodology used for this research has been presented below.
methodology
In order to conduct this research, insights into Airbnb Experiences was gathered to understand what the service does and how it works. This information was necessary to understand in order to identify the competitors for this service (i.e. companies that are providing similar types of services). Through this process, it was discovered that Airbnb Experiences is operating in what is commonly being referred to in the industry as peer-to-peer (P2P) tours and activities. Given this understanding, further research was conducted to identify some key players in this market. In doing so, the P2P tours and activities landscape was analyzed at a high level to get a general sense of which companies are being referenced commonly across media articles that discuss this market. Overall, there appeared to be quite a number of very small startups entering this market. Therefore, more focus was placed on any companies and brands that could logically be considered 'household names'/widely-known in the U.S. in the same way Airbnb's brand is widely recognized. Because of this, Groupon and TripAdvisor were both focused on. Meanwhile, the company Vayable was also focused on for this project, as this company's name turned up in nearly every article and listing of P2P tours that were analyzed during this research and has a very similar type of P2P tours service as Airbnb.
In order to determine whether these competitors are posting a threat to Airbnb Experiences (i.e. whether the competitor is stealing market share) the competitors' growth trends were analyzed to assess whether the company has been witnessing upward growth, with the assumptions being made that an increase in growth likely equals an increase in market share, whereas negative growth or no growth would indicate a likely decrease or stagnant market share.
It should also be noted here that research was further conducted across various market and industry reports in attempts to locate direct data discussing the market shares of these companies, however, the relatively niche nature of peer-to-peer tours and activities within the overall larger travel and activity industry and the relative immaturity of this emerging market segment, combined with the fact that the majority of players are small, privately held startups seems to have resulted in an overall lack of data specific to company shares and key players within this market. Therefore, a triangulation process via analysis of company growth (as noted above) was relied upon instead in order to assess potential 'threat' based on an assumed growth or decline of market share.
ABOUT AIRBNB EXPERIENCES
Airbnb Experiences are local-lead activities that provide tours, classes, and experiences for travelers that are more authentic and unique in nature. Experiences hosts range from chefs to artists to individuals who are well versed in the local scene.
- Classes and Workshops
- Concerts
- Food and Drink Experiences
- Sports, Arts, Culture, Nature, and History Experiences
- Entertainment and Nightlife
- Health, Wellness and Social Impact Experiences
- Music and Comedy
COMPETITOR 1: VAYABLE
About the company and why it's a competitor: Vayable serves as an online marketplace where locals can sell experiences, activities, and trips to travelers.
Analysis of this company's growth trend:
- Founded in 2011.
- Over the last 30 days, the monthly download growth reflects a negative growth of 12.35%, having been downloaded only 362 times on iTunes.
- Has not received funding since 2011.
- Overall, media attention and mentions appear to have slowed down quite a bit in more recent years compared to earlier years when there was a lot of buzz around this company.
- Social media following has remained relatively stable in recent weeks on Instagram and has shown no growth on Twitter within the past year.
Threat analysis:
Based on the company growth analysis above, it appears that this company is experiencing a stagnant level of customer acquisition and media buzz, which likely suggests that the company is not currently stealing much (if any) share of the market, and therefore likely does not appear to pose an immediate threat to Airbnb Experiences.
*Please note that Vayable is a private company and therefore detailed financial data regarding their growth was not found to be publicly available across an analysis of the company website and trusted media sources, therefore, the other metrics noted above were relied upon to assess their growth trend instead. COMPETITOR 2: SIDETOUR/GROUPON
About the company and why it's a competitor: SideTour (now acquired by and fully integrated with Groupon) is set up as a community market place where individuals can host and book unique and personable experiences and activities, such as having dinner in a chef's home.
Analysis of this company's growth trend:
- Founded in 2011.
- Acquired by Groupon in 2013.
- Privately held company.
- According to TechCrunch, when Groupon acquired SideTours in 2013 they noted they would be running SideTour independently for some time, meanwhile listing its activities via Groupon's e-mail circulation.
- SideTour originally offered event tickets only but began diversifying its offerings upon being acquired by Groupon.
- As of 2013, SideTour was already offering 500 activities across major U.S. cities, and Groupon stated at the time that they were going to extend it to other cities in the following months.
- In 2015, SideTour fully consolidated with Groupon and moved all of their services to the Groupon platform, which means that all tours and events made available through SideTours are now available through Groupon instead and the SideTours website redirects to the Groupon website.
- Today, Groupon is the sixth highest ranked iOS app of all time, and has 49.3 million active customers, across 15 countries.
Threat analysis:
Given that SideTour has been increasingly growing since being acquired by Groupon and that Groupon is a well-established brand with a large consumer base, it can logically be assumed that SideTour/Groupon has gained more traction in the P2P experiences market and has been increasingly posing a threat to Airbnb.
COMPETITOR 3: TRIPADVISOR EXPERIENCES
About the company and why it's a competitor: TripAdvisor's 'Experiences' business segment allows local tour guides and operators to sell various types of activities ranging from classes and cruises to multi-day excursions and day tours. Users can book these experiences through TripAdvisor. These experiences are aimed at users looking for both sightseeing and unique local experiences.
Analysis of this company's growth trend:
- In 2017, 30,000 new experiences were added to TripAdvisor, which was an increase of 50% from the year before.
- TripAdvisor's 2018 annual report notes that they are "home to the world's largest travel community of 490 million average monthly unique visitors."
- The company's non-hotel revenue segment (which can logically be assumed includes the 'experiences' division) grew 27% in 2018, compared to 2017.
- TripAdvisor says that in 2018, the work they did to reinforce their "leading position" in 'Experiences' has "laid important groundwork for future growth."
Threat analysis:
Based on TripAdvisor's very large audience of travel consumers and the fact that they are actively growing their experiences segment, it can be logically assumed that they likely pose a significant threat to Airbnb Experiences.