@Huma0
Yep. A couple of comments about the article:
The 33% increase in long-term stays "since 2019" cited by AirBnb overlaps 2+ years of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a proportion of total bookings in that time frame, that data makes sense; vacations and weekend getaways were dramatically curtailed, with most 9-to-5 folks working from home. My spouse included; he worked remotely for over a year. Well, he's back in his Manhattan office fulltime now, as are the other 9-to- 5ers that I know.
So AirBnb's reported 33% increase in long term stays, in my opinion, was responsive to the pandemic-- call them TEMPORARY "digital nomads".
As for today, I have witnessed a surge of 'normal' travel, a resumption of ordinary folks booking AirBnbs to see relatives, go to concerts, attend weddings or other events, sightsee at a particular city or place, enjoy a sporting activity. In my rural mountain location, we are central to skiing, hiking, fishing, kayaking, communing with nature. My guests are largely city folk who want a mountain getaway to decompress. (Note: I launched in Jan 2022, after covid vaccines and boosters were widely available.) Only my bookings have dropped like a stone since AirBnb's radical business model change.
The demand is still there. It's AirBnb's radical manipulation of search results, forced default "weeks" or "weekends" signaling erroneous availability, a wildly zooming map, the arbitrary appearance/disappearance of my listing on a map (sometimes there, sometimes not) that has caused lost bookings and my business to fail.
My conclusion: Chesky's 2022 Summer Release is an unforced error with devastating consequences.
As I see it, Chesky really misunderstood the shifting travel environment- that the digital nomad phenomenon was transitory. Sure, there is a niche market that CAN do the "digital nomad" thing, but the bulk of that market is back to the office... the job postings I see are all for working on site. Nevermind blue collar people who never could be "digital nomads": cops, firemen, sanitation workers, municipal employees, teachers, professors, local government, etc. Somehow, AirBnb's "digital nomad" model has excluded them.
So Chesky's new business model has gone from travel for "everyone" to booking curated high-end properties to a niche market: financially secure adults or couples without school age kids who can work remotely, and have a hefty budget.
Simply put, AirBnb has become-- without warning, a boutique Travel Agency for largely the upper socioeconomic strata.
Finally, AirBnb has dangled reversing at least one change (titles) in July. Why July? Why only titles? Does anybody know?