Guests can now book rental cars on Airbnb. The service runs through CarTrawler, an Ireland-based B2B car rental platform, and is live in the U.S., France, Italy, Spain, and Australia. Airbnb hasn't announced the launch itself. Skift identified the partnership through the terms and conditions of a new credit program and reported it on July 17th, with Airbnb confirming afterward.
The live rollout looks different from what Airbnb shared at its 2026 Summer Release in May, when the company said car rentals would launch in 50 US cities the following month. Instead, car rentals arrived in five countries, joining a Services lineup that already includes private car transfers, grocery delivery, and luggage storage.
There are two ways to book a rental car through Airbnb: guests can add a rental car to an existing reservation from the Trips tab, or book one on its own through the Services section of the app. Bookings include optional add-ons and rental protection, and confirmations come directly from CarTrawler.
How the Credit Program Works
The credit program gives guests up to 20% of a rental back in Airbnb credit, capped at $200 per reservation. The newly updated program terms spell out the limits:
- Only a guest's first CarTrawler booking made through Airbnb qualifies.
- Credit arrives within 60 days of returning the car, expires two years after it's issued, and applies automatically to eligible bookings.
- Credits can be spent on stays, experiences, and select services, but can't be redeemed for cash or gift cards.
CarTrawler handles fulfillment and customer support through a dedicated help page. Cancellations also work separately from stays. If a guest cancels an Airbnb reservation, a car rental attached to that stay is not canceled automatically and has to be canceled on its own.
CarTrawler Is Set to Become an Expedia Company
On May 20th, Expedia announced an agreement to acquire CarTrawler. Skift had reported days earlier that the deal was on track at a price of $350 million. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2026.
Neither company has said what happens to the Airbnb partnership after that. For now, the setup is less strange than it sounds. CarTrawler's entire business is supplying other travel brands. It connects more than 550 rental suppliers to over 300 brands, including Uber, Ryanair, and American Airlines.
Still, if the contract continues after the acquisition, Airbnb would be a B2B customer of an Expedia-owned subsidiary (similar to how Netflix runs on Amazon's AWS while competing with Prime Video), and Expedia owns Vrbo, Airbnb's most direct competitor. Whether this partnership stays in place once the deal closes is worth watching.
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