Revolut is now a tourism and travel platform. Gone are those days when a bank, or fintech, was just that: a bank. The British technology company launches its own version of Airbnb. Or what is the same: a reservation service for vacation stays in hundreds of regions of the world. Revolut, which positioned itself as a fintech account for travel thanks to advantageous currency exchanges, has taken advantage of its pull in the business by making its way into travel insurance and, now, also accommodation.
Called Revolut Homes, it is a service that was born from another of the latest fintech business lines: Revolut Estancias. Which is nothing more than Booking’s competitor. A platform for booking vacation stays that is now evolving to become the leader in the vacation home market. A business area created and led by Airbnb.
Revolut does not confirm the number of holiday stays it has registered for booking through your app, but he points out that they number in the thousands. In any case, how can they compete with Airbnb? In the same way that the technology sector has competed to gain followers: with discounts. In the case of Revolut, these come hand in hand with returns after reservations. 4% on the price of the reservation, depending on the client account that you reserve.
Currently available throughout Europe, including the UK, the entire booking and payment process is managed through the user’s Revolut account. They also include the option of group payments to divide the price of the stay among all those attending the trip.
It is, in the words of Revolut Product General Manager Christopher Guttridge, one more step in creating a super app.
“When it comes to travel, we know that our customers’ needs are changing more and more. Big or small, cheap or elegant, local houses or boutique hotels: our customers want to book any type of accommodation, all from one place“
After the Airbnb storm, calm comes for Revolut
The fact that Revolut has decided to jump into the pool of vacation stay reservations has a reason for being: the sector is mature enough to be able to do so. Or, to put it another way, Airbnb has already managed to gain a foothold in cities and in regulation. Something similar to the business of riders and passenger transport. They have opened the door and calmed the waters of a sector that, until very recently, It was a headache for the city councils of the capitals.
With housing prices rising without limit and housing supply shrinking, attracted by higher returns in the tourism sector, the war against Airbnb and tourist housing lasted for years. With Barcelona in the lead, followed by Madrid, Seville, Valencia and the rest of the big cities, all parties were on a war footing.
The hotels to see part of their business diluted between more competition, the neighbors for the problems caused in residential areas before the hordes of tourists, the Town halls by means trying to create norms. With disparate results, depending on the area, it seems that these waters have already calmed down. At least enough so that more competitors from the Revolut league enter to play the type with tourist housing. One that, after a long intermission during the pandemic – in which the founder of Airbnb himself doubted whether the future of his business was assured – seems to have successfully recovered from the blockade on tourism and mobility.