Airbnb CEO Says Crypto Payments Is Top Request For Users – Business Insider

• Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky revealed that the top feature users are requesting in 2022 is crypto as payment.
• Other suggestions include clear pricing displays, guest loyalty program, and updated cleaning fees.
• Currently, Airbnb accepts Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal as payment methods. 
• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell

Brian Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb, revealed that the top feature users are requesting in 2022 is to pay for bookings in cryptocurrency. 

Over the weekend, Chesky tweeted: “If Airbnb could launch anything in 2022, what would it be?”

Two days later, he posted the list of the the top six suggestions out of nearly 4,000 received.

The first on his list, he said, was crypto payments. This was followed by clear pricing displays, guest loyalty program, updated cleaning fees, more long-term stays and discounts, and better customer service.

“Already working on most, will look into others now!” he said. 

One user who made the crypto suggestion said some countries block international payments, hence his reliance on digital assets. Chesky, who has been actively responding to some tweets, replied: “We are looking into this.”

According to the executive, his online travel and booking firm has seen a payments volume worth $336 billion since 2013. Airbnb currently accepts Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal as payment methods. 

If Airbnb incorporates the popular suggestion, it will join the ranks of Tesla and AMC, among others, in accepting crypto as payment. 

This isn’t the first time Chesky talked about crypto.

In September 2021, he told Fox Business crypto payments has been a constant request. He also pointed to his connection with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong in the same interview. Armstrong, who now helms the largest crypto exchange in the US, used to be a product technical manager for Airbnb.

Airbnb in its prospectus made mention of crypto as one of the critical components in its success, on top of new authentication technologies, such as biometrics, distributed ledger and blockchain technologies, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, and cloud technologies.

Airbnb went public in December 2020 in one of the most hotly anticipated initial public offerings at that time.