Airbnb has made a long-rumored move into hotel booking, buying HotelTonight for over $400 million. The move will add traditional and boutique hotel rooms to its inventory of vacation rentals, although the two websites will operate separately.
HotelTonight, which was originally focused entirely on deeply-discounted last-minute empty rooms, has more recently extended its timeframe out to 100 days, putting it in competition with the big boys of the lodging world, including Booking.com and Expedia.
Airbnb chief Brian Chesky has often spoken of wanting Airbnb to become an “end-to-end” operator in the travel world, and this move may bring that idea a bit closer. Airbnb has also been widely expected to go public this year, but no date for an IPO has been announced, and it’s not clear if this acquisition will have an effect on those plans.
