Airbnb Partners with 23andMe to Offer Heritage Travel

Airbnb has partnered with 23andMe, a genomics and biotechnology company, to offer heritage trip planning through the Airbnb platform. Heritage vacations have risen in popularity recently, as many seek to rediscover their ancestral roots through travel, whether they’re originally found in small Scottish bookshops or self-sustainable moon camps. Now, the two companies are working together to provide travel plans that are unique to your heritage, by incorporating heritage travel into their offerings and products.

Using 23andMe, customers are able to order a saliva collection kit straight to their home, with none of the needles or blood typically expected from most medical tests or operations. Customers follow the testing kit’s instructions and insert some of their saliva into the tube before shipping it back to the 23andMe labs for testing. Within three to five weeks, customers will receive their reports with comprehensive genetic and ancestral breakdowns, helping them fully understand their heritage.

Once a customer has received the results of their genetic ancestry, 23andMe automatically provides a variety of ancestral populations connected to the customer’s test results. The platform will work with Airbnb to offer Airbnb homes and experiences related to or within the native country of the customer. Similarly, Airbnb has now created dedicated pages corresponding with 23andMe’s genetic populations, making it easier for travelers browsing Airbnb’s site to plan their next heritage-based trip. More than just travel, Airbnb will also be recommending specific Airbnb experiences related to a customer’s heritage once they’ve received their 23andMe test results.

With more than half of 23andMe’s customers purchasing test kits in order to better determine their ancestry and the ancestry of their family, heritage travel has risen in recent popularity. In a 2019 Airbnb study, the company found that many considered heritage trips an important and almost necessary part to life, with 83% of people surveyed in Argentina said they considered heritage trips to be more valuable than a typical vacation. If that wasn’t enough to showcase people’s desire to reconnect with their roots, 57% of Airbnb’s survey respondents in the United States said they would give up alcohol for a year for a free heritage trip.

This new partnership between Airbnb and 23andMe gives people a chance to retrace their ancestry, whether it be the journey’s of immigration or the roots of a region once known as home. For those looking to reconnect with their ancestry and learn more about Airbnb and 23andMe’s collaboration, visit Airbnb’s heritage travel page to get started.