Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of popular vacation rental platform Airbnb, has asked his Twitter followers to share new ideas for new services the company could roll out this year, and after receiving over 4,000 suggestions found cryptocurrency payments were a top demand.
Chesky shared the results on Twitter, noting that the cryptocurrency payments suggestion was followed by clear pricing displays, a guest loyalty program, updated cleaning fees, and better customers service, among others.
The CEO added in a follow-up that the firm is “already working on some” of these new offerings and is set to “look into others” now. The company’s chief executive detailed that the cryptocurrency payments option is “inclusive of a variety of token ideas,” and detailed the company has processed $336 billion in payments since 2013.
It’s worth noting that in September of last year, in an interview with Fox Business, Chesky revealed clients have been asking Airbnb to accept cryptocurrency payments for several years, at the time noting that the CEO of leading U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, previously worked at the firm.
Airbnb went public through an initial public offering (IPO) in 2020, and at the time said its “future success” will depend on its adoption technologies like cryptocurrencies and their underlying blockchain.
In 2016, the platform acquired the team at cryptocurrency-tipping service ChangeTip, but at the time clarified it was not planning on accepting bitcoin as a payment method. Notably, several Airbnb competitors accept cryptocurrency payments, including blockchain native Dtravel.
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