Booking.com Takes on Airbnb, But Don't Call it a Clone
*By Conor White*
Booking.com recently surpassed five million listings for homes and apartments for rent, announcing the online travel site as a worthy competitor to Airbnb.
But Booking.com's chief executive said in an interview Tuesday with Cheddar that the comparisons end there.
"Everything is instantly bookable at Booking, we don't charge customer fees, so there's some principle differences as to the products we offer customers," said the CEO, Gillian Tans. "We want to make sure we grow this segment in a way that customers know Booking.com today."
Booking.com said it has the largest online selection of vacation rentals to cater to a growing number of millennial travelers who prefer to stay in homes and apartments instead of hotels.
"The growing segment in homes and apartments is, of course, something that appeals to millennials, but also to families," said Tans, who was attending the Collision conference in New Orleans this week. "But you also see that providing insight into what can you do once you arrive at the destination is something that we are expanding."
Booking.com's focus on experiential travel is on point. According to a study by the Adventure Travel Trade Association, 54 percent of travelers plan to participate in an adventure activity on their next trip.
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/booking-com-surpasses-five-million-listings).
Donald Pettey, Program Manager for Strategic Initiatives for MassDOT, and Mohammed Siddiqui, Vice President of Public Relations at Ko-Solar, join Cheddar Climate, where they discuss their plan to test highway barriers that absorb sound and solar energy, with construction expected to begin in the first half of 2022.
President Joe Biden's "Build Back Better" bill could mean cheaper electric bicycles and scooters as the nation attempts to shift away from gas-powered cars. Noa Banayan, the director of federal affairs at PeopleForBikes, joined Cheddar's "Closing Bell" to provide some background on the E-Bike Act included in Biden's reconciliation bill that would provide tax credits for qualified purchases. "We want to make sure, from the bike industry's perspective, that this is a technology and a product that is available to the majority of Americans who want to lower their carbon footprint and get around town faster and do everything that they would normally do in a short car trip but by bike, because it's healthier, it's fast, it's efficient, you're not in traffic," she said.
It's being called the next big trend in crypto. A decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, is an internet community of different types of groups and businesses. The purpose is to allow people to commit funds to a specific cause in a safe way. Now, one social platform is creating a do-it-yourself kit for those who want to step into the space. Upstream Collective just launched the beta mode of its platform with the goal of putting all facets of running a DAO in one place. Alex Taub, co-founder and CEO of Upstream, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Walmart and Zipline have teamed up to launch a drone delivery service in Pea Ridge, Arkansas. The service delivers products to customers within a 50-mile radius of the store. Liam O'Connor, COO of Zipline, joins Cheddar News to talk more about the partnership.
A NASA spacecraft that will deliberately crash into an asteroid is preparing to launch this week. The goal of the DART mission, or the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, is to hit the smaller of the two asteroids, Dimorphos, with the spacecraft at about 15,000 miles per hour and see how the impact changes the asteroid’s trajectory. Joey Roulette, space reporter at The New York Times, joins Cheddar News to talk more about it.
On this episode of Cheddar Reveals, Yair Nechmad, Nayax CEO, discusses the future of cashless payments, and how cashless payments give retailers a competitive edge and allow merchants to scale business; Jason Thomas, Global CEO of Tappit, breaks down how the pandemic accelerated the transition to cash-free live events, and why that trend is here to stay; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Steam's 'Blockchain Revolution.'
Not long ago, banning cash at a large public event would have been seen as a crazy idea that would deter sales. But our cash-free future is getting closer with the use of contactless payments being implemented in sports venues, music festivals, concerts, and more. Jason Thomas, Global CEO of Tappit, joins Cheddar Reveals to break down how the pandemic accelerated the transition to cash-free live events, and why that trend is here to stay.
Yair Nechmad, Nayax CEO, joins Cheddar Reveals to discuss the future of cashless payments, and how cashless payments give retailers a competitive edge and allow merchants to scale business.
