Travel insights from US Host Tour event

Stephanie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Travel insights from US Host Tour event

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Hi everyone, 

 

Did you see the announcement on the 100+ upgrades across Airbnb in May?

 

A few weeks ago, Airbnb leaders and Host Community Leaders held an event for local US Host Clubs to discuss what these changes mean for Hosts. It was great to see @Christine615 and @Melodie-And-John0 participating in the chat.

 

A highlight of the event for me were the insights on how the travel landscape is developing both globally and locally and I wanted to share some of these with you here. This is based on analysing booking data and surveying 10,000 consumers across 5 countries. Here’s what we learnt about the US:

 

Freedom to travel

  • In Q1 of this year, 80% of bookings in the US where domestic travel, 45% of which were within 300 miles of the guests home
  • 31% of nights booked for Summer 2021 are family stays
  • Many of the top-trending states on Airbnb for summer 2021 are states with the fewest hotel rooms like Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

 

Guests are looking to travel in a flexible way

  • On Airbnb, about 200 million searches with flexible dates happened using our Flexible and Expanded Dates tools in the first four months of 2021. 
  • 7 in 10 consumers surveyed across 5 countries including the US, want the ability to search for accommodations without setting any travel dates at all. 

 

Unique stays are on the rise

  • In 2021, the number of searches for unique homes on Airbnb has grown 94% compared to the same period in 2019. 
  • Searches for Yurts which are up 1,700% and Farm stays up 1,055%
  • The top trending destinations this summer on Airbnb are access points to natural features like: Whitefish Mountain (near Glacier National Park), West Yellowstone (near Yellowstone National Park) and Black Hills, South Dakota (near Black Hills National Forest and Mount Rushmore). 

 

Other Highlights

 

State specific news

  • Hosts have been absolutely essential in the passage of these rules. In San Diego, over a hundred Hosts attended virtually and provided public comments in support of the local ordinance. 
  • In Huntington Beach, California, Community Leader Kathryn met with local city representatives and lobbied them to endorse a statewide tax collection bill.
  • Altogether, year-to-date, Hosts in the US have sent nearly 65,000 emails to legislators. You can all join in the conversation by opting into Policy emails in your notification settings.
  • We are committed to supporting your ability to share your homes by working with cities and states across the country to enable fair laws and regulations.

 

City Partnerships

  • Last Autumn, Airbnb launched the City Portal. The City Portal is a tool for governments and tourism organisations that connects them with tools and local data about short-term rentals in their communities.
  • Today, 40 local governments and destinations access the City Portal -- including Raleigh, North Carolina, where we’ve been working directly with Mayor Baldwin to help support Raleigh Hosts.
  • Since last June, we’ve also partnered with 100 local destination marketing organisations to help them leverage the Airbnb platform to support tourism and economic development -- from Visit Florida to SF Travel.
  • By collaborating with these stakeholders, we are helping to drive responsible tourism back to communities when they are ready.

 

Host Demos. We did a deeper dive into 3 new features: Inbox, Arrival Guides, and the Today Tab. Many Hosts were excited to see the improvements to Inbox, such as scheduled messages. For more information on the announcements made by CEO, Brian Chesky on May 24th, check out this article

 

While there’s lots to consider when hosting depending on your local state rules and regulations, we can all agree that it’s exciting to learn about the changes happening in the way we travel. Don’t forget, if you would like to connect with your local Host Club, find your Club here

 

What did you find most interesting about these travel trends?

 

Thanks, 

 

Stephanie

 

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2 Replies 2
Helen427
Level 10
Auckland, New Zealand

Thanks @Stephanie @Airbnb 

 

How did ABB decide which 5 countries consumers to survey?
Which countries are they and how were they chosen?

Would you please be able to provide a copy of the link with the Survey so we can all see the Questions and Options asked of Participants?

Thanks in Advance

 

Stephanie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hiya @Helen427 ,

 

The countries surveyed were Australia, France, Mexico, UK and US. You can learn lots more about the survey and our findings in this article: https://news.airbnb.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2021/05/Airbnb-Report-on-Travel-Living.pdf 

 

Many thanks,

 

Stephanie

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