@Rachael171
Yes, the article says "The rise in bookings is coming from a low baseline after the global travel industry came to a screeching halt in late winter as Covid-19 spread. Chesky said he expects this year's revenue to be half of what it was last year."
Of course it's gong to be a surge from close to zero!
Maybe things are picking up in the US, but I'm not experiencing it here. My average booking rate is currently showing as 16.1% (always used to be near to 100% year round, not just in high season months like July) and that's because I have my first guest in months. It also says that's up 16.7% on the previous month, which doesn't make much sense. So my occupancy was at -0.6% before? I don't really trust the Airbnb performance figures, but I can assure you there's no surge at this end.
There is a surge of pointless enquiries from guests asking for more discounts, wanting to treat the place like a regular rental, i.e. having boyfriends stay over frequently for free and doing a disappearing act if you ask them any questions.
One disappeared when I asked her COVID-19 safety related questions, another (and this girl started off by begging me to let her stay) when I said no to extra discounts and that there was a charge for a second person and a third when I asked her about her most recent and very negative review. Of course all of this was tactfully worded by me.
Previously, I got more requests to book than enquiries and people did actually respond, including to defend themselves if a host left a bad review. Now, it's just enquiries and the majority have red flags. I can see why so many hosts are reporting an increase in bad guests. Desperate times may call for desperate measures, but I'm not willing to go there!