In Case You Missed It: Information and Updates from Airbnb

As the world continues to prepare for the travel rebound, today we are offering an update regarding our community of Hosts and guests around the world and a recap of some recent items you might have missed in the Airbnb Newsroom. 

A Resilient Community

Airbnb Hosts have continued to welcome guests and encourage safe, responsible travel. While thousands of hotels are closed, guests have sought out whole homes and the number of listings on Airbnb has remained stable. For example, as travel patterns changed, Airbnb adapted and we had more active listings in France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and the Czech Republic combined at the end of 2020 than the end of 2019. We consider a listing of a home or an Experience to be an active listing if it is viewable on Airbnb and has been previously booked at least once on Airbnb.

While many Airbnb Hosts around the world have been sharing their space for years, new Hosts have also found success on Airbnb. As we noted in this report regarding Hosts with one listing who began hosting since the pandemic started, “In the US, the typical new Host earned $3,900, almost twice as much as what has been made available via stimulus checks to date. In the other four countries with the most new Hosts with only one listing, who started hosting since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020, the typical Host earned:

• Australia: $3,400 
• Canada: $2,400 
• UK: $2,300 
• France: $1,700

The Airbnb community is also diverse and distributed around the world. As we recently noted, our business continues to be highly diversified—no city represented more than 1.1 percent of our revenue (before adjustments for incentives and refunds) during 2020.

New Tools to Support New Ways of Traveling and Living

Remote work and learning are giving those fortunate enough to be able to work from home greater freedom to choose when they travel. According to our recent travel trends report, one quarter of Americans would consider traveling during off-peak times of the year or the week. And in 2021 to date, more than one third of people searching our platform have been flexible in terms of the date or location of their stay.

Last month in our ongoing work to evolve our platform to meet the changing needs of our community, we rolled out a new feature that provides guests with that flexibility when searching for stays on Airbnb and in doing so, gives Hosts greater exposure to potential guests. 

Guests will now see a Flexible Dates feature that allows them to search for homes in a whole new way. Instead of selecting exact dates at the beginning of a search, guests can search for new options like a weekend getaway, a week-long vacation, or even a month-long or months-long stay. 

Resources for Hosts

For those considering becoming a Host, the time to take advantage of this economic opportunity is now. Guests are looking for listings that enable them to live and work anywhere:

• Wireless internet is the #4 top-searched amenity this year. 
• Hosts who add laptop-friendly workspace earn 14 percent more than those who don’t.
• Hosts who add cooking basics earn 17 percent more compared to those who don’t.

This Newsroom post has more details on what makes a top Airbnb listing. 

Building Trust

Building a loyal travel community starts with providing great service, and supporting our global community of Hosts and guests is one of the most important things we do each day. No matter where you are in the world, you should rest assured that our Support team is standing by to help. This week, we shared that Brent Potts has joined Airbnb as Vice President of Community Support and in February, we welcomed Donald Hicks as our VP of Trust Policy & Partnerships. 

Working with Governments

In 2020, we introduced City Portal, a first-of-its-kind solution that provides governments and tourism organizations with tools, insights and access to the Airbnb community. Earlier this year we announced a Landmark Commitment to the French Government and noted that “we will work to give city officials across France access to the portal, providing a one-stop-shop for data on home sharing, tax collection and neighbourhood matters.”

In the US, Airbnb’s Senior Vice President for Global Policy and Communications Chris Lehane submitted a comment letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in support of a new Proposed Rule that would make it easier for companies to share equity with the people who help power their platforms.