• How Airbnb rolled out 20+ locally relevant payment methods worldwide in just 14 months By: Gerum Haile , Bo Shi, Yujia Liu , Yanwei Bai , Bo Yuan , Rory MacQueen , Yixia Mao Across the more than 220 global markets that Airbnb operates in, cards are the primary way that guests pay for stays, experiences, and services. • However, to help make our platform accessible to more people, reduce friction at checkout, and drive more adoption, we introduced trusted, locally preferred payment methods - called local payment methods or LPMs. • By offering and supporting these payment methods, Airbnb enables guests everywhere to choose what works best for them. • In this blog post, we’ll discuss the implementation details behind our Pay as a Local initiative, which allowed us to launch 20+ local payment methods across multiple markets in just over one year. • LPMs: What they are, why they matter, and our discovery and selection process Local payment methods go beyond traditional cards and include: Country or region-specific digital wallets (such as M-Pesa or MTN, MoMo) Online bank transfers (such as Online Banking Czech, Online Banking Slovakia) Real-time or instant bank payments (such as PIX, UPI) Local payment schemes (such as EFTPOS, Cartes Bancaires) By embracing LPMs, Airbnb helps make travel more inclusive and seamless for people around the world. • LPMs help the platform to: Boost conversion and bookings by offering guests familiar, trusted payment options.

Article Summaries:

  • Airbnb announced that it has introduced more than 20 locally preferred payment methods (LPMs) across its 220‑plus markets within 14 months, a move aimed at reducing checkout friction and expanding access for users without credit cards. The company identified over 300 payment options worldwide, then applied a structured qualification framework to select the top one or two methods per market, focusing on those with clear travel use cases. LPMs include regional digital wallets, online bank transfers, instant payments, and local card schemes. The rollout was enabled by a recent payment‑platform re‑engineering that decoupled payment logic from core services, improving scalability and time‑to‑market.

Sources: