American Express Partners With Airbnb to Expand Travel Portal Bookings

American Express and Airbnb announced a partnership on October 22 to integrate short-term rental properties directly into the Amex Travel platform. PYMNTS, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, and Finviz all report that eligible United States cardholders can now book stays with Airbnb through AmexTravel.com or the Amex Travel mobile app. PYMNTS, Yahoo Finance, and Finviz report that the arrangement adds more than 1 million Airbnb listings to the travel portal. [1][8][9][11]

Under the new arrangement, customers can earn reward points when booking Airbnb properties through American Express. PYMNTS reported that eligible credit card members can gain additional rewards by selecting from the newly added rental properties. JournalArta and TheStreet report that the card issuer is also adding an Airbnb credit worth 250 dollars for eligible cardholders. [1][10][12]

The business move coincides with financial updates from the credit card company. Seeking Alpha Markets and Investing.com News report that American Express delivered third-quarter earnings per share that beat analyst estimates. Investing.com News reports that the company raised its annual profit guidance as spending among affluent customers remained strong. However, Seeking Alpha Markets and Investing.com News also report that third-quarter revenue fell short of estimates and overall network volume disappointed. [2][3][4][6][7]

American Express is a bank holding company headquartered in Lower Manhattan that specializes in payment cards. As FTMQ Business reported earlier, federal regulators fined American Express 350 million dollars in October following anti-money laundering compliance failures at American Express National Bank. [13][15]

The new travel offerings come alongside ongoing corporate restructuring efforts. Seeking Alpha Markets reported that American Express plans to reduce its total workforce headcount by 5 percent to lower operational expenses and increase corporate agility. [5]