Airbnb acquires Danish workspace marketplace Gaest.com

Airbnb has acquired Danish online marketplace Gaest.com, which offers short-term space rentals for interviews, meetings, workshops, team building events, and more. Similar to Airbnb, Gaest allows hosts across six continents to put their spaces online and optionally provide add-ons to attract business professionals.

Through the merger, Airbnb aims to strengthen its business travel branch, Airbnb for Work. Airbnb for Work enables business travelers to find convenient accommodation that stays within their work budgets. For the time being, Gaest.com will continue operating on its own platform, but the Gaest.com team members will join Airbnb.

“We’re thrilled to join one of the world’s most innovative companies and become an integral part of their mission to make it easier for professionals to feel a sense of belonging at work. Our dream from day one has been to make it easier, faster, and more cost-effective to list, discover, and book unique spaces that spark creativity, motivate interaction and encourage knowledge sharing,” said Anders Mogensen, co-founder and CEO of Gaest.com.

According to Airbnb, Gaest employees will work under the Homes business unit, reporting to president of Homes, Greg Greeley. Greeley has announced a plan to both “support the hosts who have always powered Airbnb and expand accommodation and service offerings into new areas.”

“We imagine a world where anyone can share their space for professional events and, in the longer term, for celebrations. Bringing in a leadership team with strong domain knowledge allows us to accelerate our work in this area, and more importantly Gaest.com and Airbnb share a vision of helping every space owner become entrepreneurs through sharing their spaces with those who need it,” said David Holyoke, global head of Airbnb for Work.