Avito to launch rival Airbnb

The Avito project was able to become the first serious alternative to the systems of America and Europe in the wake of attempts to import substitution of Booking and Airbnb services, which were proposed to be blocked in Russia amid anti-sanctions.

 

It is difficult to call the Avito project a full-fledged import substitution, since the company is not Russian - 10 years ago it was invented by two Swedish citizens, Jonas Nordlander and Philip Engelbert, and now its owners are foreign investment funds. Secondly, for the domestic tourism market of hotels and travel agencies, short-term rental projects are harmful and even destructive.

 

Denis Blinov, Avito’s Head of Safe Deal, said: The Avito Online Apartment Booking Service has started operating in 11 Russian cities hosting World Cup matches this week. Not all fans have found accommodation in advance, and now landlords have the opportunity to rent apartments at the last minute.” In the third quarter, this option will be extended to the whole of Russia.

 

Advertisements for daily rental housing in Russia on Avito could be published before, but people themselves agreed with landlords on the terms of the deal. Now residents of the cities hosting the World Cup are available online rental function from which you can make a reservation. Avito predicts that at least 30% of short-term rental ads will be connected to the service by the end of the year.

 

In late spring, the Department of Tourism and Regional Policy of the Ministry of Culture instructed Rostourism to study the initiative of the head of the tour operator “Svoysh Tourist Service” (SvayTS) S. Voitovich in connection with the situation on the tourist market, which developed as a result of the work in Russia of the Dutch company Booking.

 

The need for domestic online booking services is also spoken in Rostourism. As previously said the Deputy head of Department Nikolai Korolev, Russia needs a “national aggregator for booking hotels” – a competitor to Booking.

 

Avito is not a fully domestic company. Its head office is located in Russia, but the controlling shareholder is the South African media group Naspers, founded by the Swedes.

 

In many countries, the confrontation with short-term rental services has been going on for a long time. In the Russian Federation, experts of the all-Russian public organization “Business Russia” spoke about the reasons for the negative attitude. The main claims: they do not control the level of quality of accommodation of travelers, and legitimate business is damaged, at the same time hotels invest serious capital in the development.