Last week, I was in LA for Airbnb’s 2025 Summer Release. As part of the day’s events, Federico and I interviewed Jud Coplan, Airbnb’s Vice President of Product Marketing, and Teo Connor, Airbnb’s Vice President of Design, for AppStories to talk about the new features and app the company launched. It was a great conversation that you can watch on YouTube:

or listen to the episode here:

Last week’s launch was a big one for Airbnb. The company debuted Services and reimagined and expanded Experiences. Services are the sort of things hotels and resorts offer that you used to give up when booking an Airbnb stay. Now, however, you can book a chef, personal trainer, hair stylist, manicurist, photographer, and more. Better yet, you don’t have to book a stay with an Airbnb host to take advantage of services. You can schedule services in your hometown or wherever you happen to be.

Experiences aren’t entirely new to Airbnb, but have been expanded and integrated into the Airbnb app in a way that’s similar to Services. Services allow you to get the most out of a trip from locals who know their cities best, whether that’s a cultural tour, dining experience, outdoor adventure, or something else.

Chef Grace explaining how to serve sadza.

While I was in LA, I prepared a meal alongside several other media folks from around the world. Our instructor was Chef Kuda Grace from Zimbabwe at Flavors from Afar. We made sadza with peanut butter and mustard greens and then sat down together to compare notes from the day’s events, tell stories about our dining experiences, and get to know each other better.

The evening was a lot of fun, but what struck me most about it was something we touched upon in this week’s episode of AppStories. The goal of Airbnb’s redesigned app is to get you to leave it and go out into the world to try new things. It reduces the friction and anxiety of taking the plunge into something new and emphasizes social interactions in the real world instead of on a screen. In 2025, that’s unusual for an app from a big company, and it was fascinating to talk to Teo and Jud about how they and their teams set out to accomplish that goal.

I like Airbnb’s redesigned app a lot. It’s playful, welcoming and easy to use. What remains to be seen is whether Airbnb can pull off what it’s set out to accomplish. It isn’t the first company to try to pair customers with local services and experiences. Nor is it Airbnb’s first attempt at experiences. However, the app is a solid foundation, and if my experience at dinner in LA was any indication, I suspect Airbnb may be onto something with Services and Experiences.

Disclosure: The trip to LA to conduct my half of this interview was paid for by Airbnb.