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).
Melissa Snover, Founder & CEO of Nourished, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss her one-of-a-kind business that offers customizable, 3D printed vitamins that offer less hassle, cost, and waste than traditional vitamins.
Mental health platform Real recently raised $37 million in a Series B round led by Owl Ventures. Through its mobile app, Real says it provides mental health care at a lower cost than traditional therapy and aims to make mental wellness a part of everyone's daily routine. The company also announced that U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe will serve as an adviser to the company. Ariela Safira, Founder & CEO of Real, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 28, 2022, with Elon Musk mocking Twitter's top legal exec Vijaya Gadde on the platform itself, a probe in George Floyd's death finding discrimination within the Minneapolis police force, the latest California drought leading to new water restrictions, and more.
Ford CFO John Lawler joined Cheddar News to talk about the auto giant's Q1 earnings report that beat on revenue and EPS. Despite the good numbers, Lawler spoke to challenges Ford had to navigate. "We also see the continued disruption to the supply chain impacting our production, and that hit us in the first quarter as well. So it kept us from having an even stronger quarter," he said. Lawler noted that chip shortages leading to the supply constraints should ease up throughout the year.
Tech giant Microsoft won a military contract for the production of its IVAS (integrated visual augmentation system) combat goggles, based on its HoloLens ARG tech, worth up to $21.9 billion over 10 years. However, the Pentagon is now saying that the device "has not yet demonstrated the capability to serve as a fighting goggle," and that the Army made mistakes in the program's initial stages by not clearly describing minimum performance standards. While testing continues, concerns have grown outside of the Defense Department to Congress and even within Microsoft itself. Cheddar's Ken Buffa takes a deeper look at the possible boondoggle.
