Airbnb, the company that connects travelers with locals willing to rent their spaces (homes, rooms, apartments, etc), announced 10 million nights booked back in June. That’s double what the company claimed back in January. Every two seconds someone books a night with the service, and in order to cater to the specific needs of those millions of travelers Airbnb is launching a local guidebook to some of their most popular cities for rentals.
It’s called Airbnb Neighborhoods, and they claim it’s the “the definitive guide to neighborhood experiences around the world.”
“Airbnb Neighborhoods combine stunning photography, local editorial perspective, and practical information to let you discover the neighborhood for you,” says the company in a blog post.
At launch, Airbnb Neighborhoods is available for locations in Rio de Janeiro, New York City, San francisco, London, Berlin, Paris, and Washington D.C.
One you select one of those cities, the neighborhood guide lets you narrow your search down to what type of area you’re looking to stay in. For instance, in New York you have to option to select “Peace & Quiet” or the exact opposite, “Nightlife.” Let’s say you want to go with “Dining.”
From there, you can select specific neighborhoods that match that tag. Each neighborhood has its own photo-rich page complete with a map, transit times, and information on local attractions. Did I mention that it was photo-rich? Each neighborhood page features dozens upon dozens of great photos from local photographers.
If that area looks right, you can then shoot over to a listing of all available locations.
Airbnb doesn’t say when we can expect more neighborhoods to become available on their new travel guide, but you’d have to expect that more are forthcoming. With Neighborhoods, Airbnb emphasizes exactly why a traveler would want to stay in a quirky apartment in the East Village as opposed to a hotel outside the city.