Most people think of AirBNB as a listing service for individuals who want to rent out a space, ranging from a spare room to an entire vacation homes. It’s an important “sharing economy” site, but people searching the site might notice some alternative offerings from… hotels.

The next time you notice an AirBNB host with multiple listings, the person may not in fact be an enterprising subletter or an enterprising landlord welcoming guests in a residential area. It might be an actual hotel. Hostels and hotels that aren’t part of a chain have embraced the idea of such a large platform. Yes, they use AirBNB, which has about 2 million rooms available on any given night, as one of many ways to draw customers.

There’s also a hidden advantage: AirBNB takes 3% of the fee for the customer’s stay. The mega-travel aggregators charge as much as 25%. Expedia, which owns multiple online travel agent sites, recently announced that it plans to acquire Homeaway, a site that does peer-to-peer room and home rentals like AirBNB.

The service’s rule is that they have to make it clear what they are, and not masquerade as individual hosts. or B&B owners.

TO FILL ROOMS, HOTELS ARE TURNING TO AIRBNB [FastCompany]

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