The concept for Trips is based on the premise that great travel is about having the freedom to be yourself, or even discover yourself. This happens when you’re out exploring the world with other people, which is why Airbnb expanded from a home-sharing platform to offer Experiences. These Experiences are hosted by local experts who immerse travelers in their world over the course of a few hours or a few days. The locals teach travelers a new skill or take them inside a cultural “scene” or community that they wouldn’t be able to access on their own. With this new offering, Airbnb aims to redefine the way people travel, providing a continuous way to live like a local anywhere in the world.

Along with Airbnb’s cinematic approach to conveying offline experiences in-app, the launch of Trips provided an opportunity for the maturation of the brand. The design achieves a conversational feel through a clean, sans-serif typeface arranged in a deliberate size hierarchy. Motion is woven throughout the experience with devices like “parent-to-child” navigational transitions that seamlessly take the user from high-level overviews to details. Subtle gradients that nod to vintage movie theater signage tie in the cinematic feel, giving the UI added dimension and signaling the nuanced richness of the experiences on offer. Having strong visual consistency throughout also gives Airbnb the freedom to be more bespoke when it comes to the individual hosts’ content, without sacrificing the overall cohesiveness of the experience.

Airbnb launched Trips with 500 original experiences in 12 cities around the world and has added many more to date. The launch received over 2.170 media hits, with reactions like: “Airbnb just made a ‘major’ announcement and it’s going to change everything. Hint: tourist traps are on the verge of extinction” (Marie Claire) and “if Chesky’s gambit pays off, Airbnb may very well be the thing standing between us and the robots” (Vanity Fair).