Airbnb’s Poaching Experiences, IHG's U.S. Bounce and Meliá's Expansion Plans

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, June 11. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Airbnb has been outed by two tour platforms for trying to poach their guides as the short-term rental giant looks to relaunch its Experiences business, writes Executive Editor Dennis Schaal.

ToursByLocals and Withlocals said separately that people with Airbnb email addresses created accounts on their sites, and then violated their terms and conditions by messaging tour guides on their platforms to recruit them to Airbnb Experiences. ToursByLocals CEO Lisa Chen said those creating accounts on the site sought to take the conversations off the platform. She said ToursByLocals disabled the Airbnb accounts.

Withlocals CEO Matthijs Keij wrote about Airbnb’s activity in a recent Linkedin post, saying it wasn’t in the spirit of fair play. 

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Next, InterContinental Hotels Group CEO Elie Maalouf is downplaying early-year turbulence in U.S. inbound travel, writes Hospitality Reporter Luke Martin. 

IHG saw a drop in transatlantic bookings in March, which Maalouf partly attributed to Easter taking place in April. However, he noted IHG saw travel from Europe to the U.S. rebound in April. Maalouf added that international visitors make up just 5% of IHG’s bookings in the U.S., with only a small portion coming from Europe.  

Maalouf also said IHG is bullish on expansion in Asia, citing younger populations and faster-growing economies across the region as drivers of growth. IHG expects to open its 1,000th hotel in China within the next two years. 

Finally, Meliá Hotels has seen a surge in U.S. travelers at its resorts in the Mediterranean. And CEO Gabriel Escarrer is looking to expand in what he considers emerging destinations, writes Hospitality Reporter Luke Martin.

Escarrer said in an interview with Skift that Meliá has not seen a slowdown in demand thus far, adding the company has been encouraged by the number of forward bookings across its European properties. He also said that Meliá is pursuing an expansion strategy focused on what he calls a “vacation axis” spanning regions such as the Mediterranean, Caribbean, and the Middle East. 

Escarrer pointed to Albania, where he said Meliá is the number one hotel company, as a priority for the company.