Shanghai : World famous travel agency, Airbnb Inc said on Tuesday that it will shut down all listings and experiences in mainland China from July 30.

The company made the announcement in a letter posted to its its Chinese users without elaborating on the reasons behind the decision.

The San Francisco-based company said Chinese users would still be allowed to book listings and experiences abroad.

“We have made the difficult decision to refocus our efforts in China on outbound travel and suspend our homes and Experiences of Hosts in China, starting from July 30, 2022,” Nathan Blecharczyk, co-founder of Airbnb, wrote in the letter.

Almost all major Western internet platforms including Alphabet Inc’s Google and Meta Platforms Inc’s Facebook have ceased to provide services to end users in mainland China, citing reasons ranging from censorship to operation difficulties in the country. Blecharczyk said the decision was difficult and he was proud of what Airbnb had achieved in China.

“The decision was not easy for us and I know that it is even more difficult for you,” he said, “We’ve built and grown a thriving Host community in China together and have welcomed more than 25 million guest arrivals since the operations in China started in 2016.”

Founded in 2008, Airbnb started providing services in mainland China in 2015. It had made efforts to localise its services, including integrating with Chinese platforms like Tencent Holdings’ WeChat. Its main Chinese rivals are Tujia and Xiaozhu. But a source familiar with the company's decision said the domestic rental operation for travellers visiting China had been complicated and expensive to run even before the pandemic.