Behind Airbnb’s purchase of HotelTonight and push into hotels

It’s all coming true. Rumors about an Airbnb IPO have been swirling for years—today, the travel giant confirmed its plans to go public next year. The company was also expected to push further into hotels with its acquisition earlier this year of startup HotelTonight. Sam Shank, co-founder of HotelTonight, now heads up Airbnb’s hotel division, and spoke about the push on Thursday at a New York City-based conference hosted by travel industry publication Skift. Shank noted th