Strangers aren’t strange: Introducing Airbnb’s latest ad campaign

One billion guest arrivals after our founding 14 years ago, we have learned a lot—but our most important insight is that strangers really aren’t that strange. And today, Airbnb has launched a new ad campaign to bring that point home.

The TV ad features three unusual-looking, shaggy “guests” as they are welcomed into an Airbnb listing. As they enjoy their morning coffee, family games and a movie night, we begin to realize how much we are all the same. 

When Airbnb was born back in 2007, many people were unconvinced that strangers would stay in each other’s homes. What we’ve learned over the past 14 years is that strangers really aren’t that strange:

• More than 1 billion guest arrivals on Airbnb have occurred in over 100,000 cities and towns in over 220 countries and regions around the world. 
• Today, Airbnb has more than 4 million Hosts across nearly 6 million listings. And every day, Hosts open their doors to over half a million strangers.
• These Hosts are earning important income using what is typically their most expensive asset, their home. The typical Host earns around $9,600 per year, and many use this income to stay in their homes or cover their monthly needs. 
• New Hosts on Airbnb since the pandemic began have earned more than $6 billion.  
• Among Hosts who have self-reported their gender, 55% are women, and 20 percent are teachers or healthcare workers, or live with one.
• For listings that were first activated and booked in Q3 2021, 50% received a booking within three days of activation, and 75% received a booking within eight days.
• Guests are looking for entire homes that can hold whole families and groups of friends safely, and often for less than hotels would charge, with all needed space and amenities including family rooms, workspaces and wifi for remote work. This holiday season, more guests than ever have been using Airbnb: On Thanksgiving Day in the US, we had more guests than ever for the holiday.

The world is undergoing a revolution in how we live and work. Technologies like Zoom make it possible to work from home. This newfound flexibility is bringing about a revolution in how we travel. The COVID-19 pandemic has suddenly untethered tens of millions of people from the need to work in specific places at specific times. They can now work from anywhere, travel any time, and stay for longer. While technologies like Zoom make it possible to work from home, Airbnb is making it possible to work from any home—and ultimately, to live anywhere:

• Trips have increased in length by 15% between Q3 2019 and Q3 2021. One in five gross nights booked in Q3 2021 were for stays of a month or longer. And nearly half were for stays of at least a week.
• People are booking more remote, rural listings like the one featured in the Strangers ad: Growth for gross nights booked was strongest in rural areas for Q3 2021 compared to Q3 2019. 
• And Hosts are taking advantage of this surge in travel—Airbnb has more Hosts than ever before. That’s why we’ve focused on making it easier to become a Host, with a simplified sign-up process that takes only 10 steps to set up a new listing. To learn more about joining our Host community, visit airbnb.com/host.