Hosts Playing Critical Role in Providing Longer Term Local Stays

Airbnb introduces new ways to make it easier for guests to find, and hosts to provide, appropriate local accommodation in these challenging times.

As COVID-19 results in severe travel restrictions, the Airbnb community has shifted to meet new consumer needs for longer term stays¹ within their communities—ranging from seniors needing safe accommodations to shelter in, or families needing the space to support educating kids while working from home, to medical providers needing places to stay near the front lines, or college students needing housing after their schools have closed. 

Last week, we launched a global initiative to help support the accommodation needs of healthcare workers. In France, where this initiative was piloted, the average length of stay booked is more than 20 days².

In just the last two weeks, we’ve seen the number of guests booking longer term stays within their same cities nearly double³. 

On the host side, 80 percent of Airbnb hosts now accept longer term stays⁴ and about half of Airbnb’s active listings now provide discounts for stays of one month or longer⁵. Over the last two weeks, we’ve seen a 20 percent increase in longer term stay bookings on Airbnb as compared to last year⁶.

New tools to support hosts

To make it easier for hosts to provide guests with longer term stays, last week we introduced a new alert and onboarding flow to help hosts to open up their listings to this type of stay.

Nearby stays

In addition to longer term nearby stays, we’re seeing a larger share of Airbnb guests booking accommodation in their own communities for all lengths of stays, whether that be because they require extra space for their families or a quiet place to work. Overall, since the beginning of February until now, the average distance from guests’ home locations and the locations where they are traveling to has decreased by 20 percent⁷.  

To help hosts gain visibility for their local listings, and to help guests book places nearby, we’ve updated our landing page to put local stays front and center.

In some cities, like San Francisco and Toronto, we’ve seen the average length of stay nearly double as people within these cities seek out convenient, furnished housing options⁸.

1. For the purposes of this post, ‘longer term stays’ are defined as any reservation that is 28 days or longer.
2. Based on internal Airbnb data for bookings in France from March 24, 2020 to March 31, 2020 (GMT+2).
3. Based on internal Airbnb global data for same city bookings between the week of March 9, 2020 and the week of March 23, 2020.
4. Based on internal Airbnb global data as of March 30, 2020.
5. Based on internal Airbnb global data as of March 30, 2020.
6. Based on internal Airbnb global data, comparing LTS bookings year over year from March 16, 2020 and March 23, 2020 to the same weeks in 2019.
7. Based on internal Airbnb global booking data for the weeks of February 17, 2020 and March 23, 2020.
8. Based on internal Airbnb global booking data for the weeks of March 9, 2020 and March 23, 2020.