Another way to discover
Imagine a new Airbnb experience that inspires people to discover places they never thought to visit. Airbnb already uses AI to help you find what you’re looking for. What if AI could help you discover what you weren’t looking for? A tool that starts with sensory fragments of a place, rather than a search bar or a prompt.
THE Concept: Discover somewhere unexpected.
Spotify DJ doesn't just give you more of the same. It uses what it knows about you to surprise you. I wanted to ask the same question of Airbnb: could discovery work beyond a search bar, a prompt or a voice command?
The idea starts with a feeling instead of a destination. Rather than typing in a place, you tell Airbnb a mood, and it shows you somewhere you'd never have thought to look.
Approach: From destination to discovery.
I took Airbnb's Bélo and turned it into a portal. Instead of an icon, it becomes the entry point into a place, revealing the feeling of somewhere before it reveals where that somewhere actually is.
The look and feel is built from sensory fragments rather than photos of landmarks. Water, texture, light, the small physical details you'd notice on a trip before you ever remember its name. You experience the feeling before you know the destination.
Execution: A mood becomes a place.
The system starts with a simple question: "Where airbnb?" From there, you pick a mood, slow, wild, quiet, local, cosy, fresh, and the Bélo fills with fragments of real places that match it, before settling on somewhere specific.
I explored where this concept could live, not only within the app, but in the physical world and across campaigns too. A device hosts can place in the space lets guests discover a mood through touch rather than a screen, carrying that same "Where airbnb?" feeling into a real, physical object.
Out in the world, the idea extends into posters and billboards built around one line: you bring the mood, Airbnb finds the place.