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The Travel Recovery Has Become a Travel Revolution – An Airbnb Perspective

Unnamed Airbnb property - Source Airbnb

The Travel Recovery Has Become a Travel Revolution

Unlike trains, ships, cars and planes, however, Zoom and similar services haven’t just enabled us to travel faster, farther or more affordably – they have given us the ability to choose not to travel at all, such as for business, or to travel anywhere at anytime, such as for remote workers and their families and friends.

When Airbnb first got started in 2007, we were told that people would never open their doors to strangers. Today, we’re announcing that we have passed 1 billion guest arrivals at Airbnb listings around the world and 500 million guest reviews. Home sharing is now mainstream.

As recently as 2019, home sharing was seen as alternative accommodation that was still gaining mainstream acceptance. The COVID – 19 pandemic sped up consumer adoption of Airbnb because families and friends came to see whole homes, often either in nearby or remote locations, as the safe, responsible way to gather together. Airbnb’s business proved to be resilient and adjusted from long – distance to road trips, and from urban to more rural destinations. We moved quickly to design, build and launch innovations to help lead, shape and support what consumers wanted. Today, we have more listings than ever – more than the world’s top six hotel chains combined have rooms.

This shift toward whole homes also has brought meaningful economic benefits for Hosts and their communities. Changes in personal finances caused by the pandemic have inspired people to start sharing their extra space with travelers. One third of Airbnb Hosts surveyed globally said either they or someone in their household experienced a pay cut or lost work hours in 2020 because of the pandemic; 14 percent said they lost their jobs or were laid off themselves, or lived with someone who did.1

New Hosts on Airbnb since the pandemic began have earned $6 billion in income. The typical Airbnb Host earns $9,600. Most of our Hosts are everyday people sharing the homes in which they live. One in five Hosts who are employed are either teachers or healthcare workers.2 A majority (55 percent) of Hosts are women, and we are proud to announce today that women Hosts have earned an estimated $70 billion through Airbnb, all time.

Beyond the financial help for Hosts, Airbnb is distributing the economic benefits of travel across geographies and income brackets, including by distributing tourism spending by city – based guests to rural areas, and by wealthier guests to workers in the places they visit. During popular travel times over the course of the pandemic, we have seen more guests travel to New York’s Hudson Valley than New York City, more to Brittany than Paris, and more to the Costa Blanca than to Barcelona. In the US, travel on Airbnb generated $830 million for house cleaners in a recent 12 – month span.3

As the pandemic has stretched on, however, we have noticed an even more systemic change in travel beyond just the shift to whole homes in non – urban markets. For those who are able to work remotely, the longer the pandemic has lasted, the more working and living have blurred together, and the more permanent this way of working and living has become – as evidenced by multiplying studies and reports about the hybrid workplace becoming the norm and the recovery of business travel, and about the second – home market and the commercial real estate sector.

The travel recovery has become a travel revolution.

Propelled by the flexibility created by remote work, travel is undergoing a fundamental change. Zoom and similar services are the latest technological innovation to disrupt travel – preceded by the steam engine that gave us the first trains and ships and helped give rise to the concept of tourist destinations for the privileged; the mass – produced automobile that democratized road trips; and commercial air travel bringing us cross – border travel at scale, among many others. Unlike trains, ships, cars and planes, however, Zoom and similar services haven’t just enabled us to travel faster, farther or more affordably – they have given us the ability to choose not to travel at all, such as for business, or to travel anywhere at anytime, such as for remote workers and their families and friends.

Zoom and other technologies that enable remote work have fundamentally altered the rationale for travel – all while cross – border travel is only just starting to recover – and with more innovations to support remote work surely still to come. And the younger the company, the more flexible their remote – work policy is likely to be. An Airbnb – commissioned survey across six countries found, not surprisingly, that the youngest adults (ages 18 – 34) are the most likely to spend any time working remotely, and also likely to have traveled the most. Full – time remote workers are most likely to be between the ages of 35 – 44.4

At Airbnb, we believe that travel will be back, bigger than ever – just not like it was in 2019. People have been isolated on a scale and for a duration never seen before, and want to come together. We expect to see a significant shift in how people move around the world as gathering together intentionally – by families, friends and colleagues – becomes more important than ever while the lines between travel, work and living continue to blur:

Looking ahead, technologies like Zoom mean those who are able to work remotely will only have more and more flexibility in terms of when and where they work and live. Airbnb’s business proved resilient during the pandemic, but our adaptable platform lets us innovate fast and shape our future. Earlier this year, we introduced product upgrades and new features to cater to remote workers’ new flexibility to travel anytime:

The other reason why Airbnb is leading the travel revolution is because our platform is not just highly adaptable – it’s because we are a community built on connection and belonging, and that resonates when people have been isolated to a degree never seen before. At Airbnb, everything we do has to provide a sense of connection – to the places you go and the people you meet. Our Hosts make our guests feel welcomed and cared for and guests respond to that, perhaps especially during a pandemic. Guest reviews are one of the ways in which guests respond – now at 500 million and counting.

1According to a survey of global Airbnb Homes Hosts who hosted a trip during 2020, from February 1, 2021 to March 3, 2021.

2According to a survey of global Airbnb Homes Hosts who hosted a trip during 2020, from February 1, 2021 to March 3, 2021.

3July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021

4Morning Consult, August 31 to September 5, 2021 of 7,200 adults aged 18 – 65 in the US, Canada, France, Germany, Australia and Korea.

Posted by on September 22, 2021.

Categories: Features

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