Airbnb CEO Confirms Site is Working to Accept Crypto in 2022

After asking his Twitter followers to share their ideas for a new service it can offer in 2022, Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky was met with 4,000 suggestions – of which integrating cryptocurrency payments ranked as number one.

After crypto integration, other top suggestions included clear pricing displays and guest loyalty programs:

According to Chesky’s tweet, the peer-to-peer lodging service is “already working on some” of the proposed ideas, and “will look into others”. Elaborating on the possibility of integrating crypto support into the platform, he said that this suggestion included “a variety of token ideas”, which would most likely not be confined to one or two digital assets.

As it stands, Airbnb accepts Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal as payment methods, and since 2013 the company has processed US$336 billion in transactions.  

Crypto ‘Revolution’ All About ‘Trust’

This is not the first time Chesky has opened up regarding the company’s potential acceptance of cryptos. Two months ago, he stated that Airbnb was “looking into it”.

He added:

Like the revolution in travel, there is clearly a revolution happening in crypto; Airbnb and crypto both have interesting relationships with trust.

Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO, Airbnb

More and More Industries Accept Crypto Payments

The news from Airbnb comes after many e-commerce companies have expressed their openness to crypto integration. Last year, eBay said it was considering accepting crypto as a payment option. In December, Croatia’s top food retailer introduced crypto payments. After partnering with local fintech Electrocoin, Konzum modified its PayCek system to introduce crypto payments.

There is a wealth of evidence to suggest it won’t be the last.