Remote and hybrid work have untethered many people from the need to be in an office every day, driving the biggest change to travel since the advent of commercial flying. For the first time, millions of people can now live anywhere.
On Airbnb’s platform, we have seen:
- One out of every five gross nights booked in Q3 were for stays of 28 days or longer.
- Nearly half of nights booked in Q3 were for stays of at least seven days, up from 44 percent in 2019.
- In the 12 months through September, more than 100,000 guests booked stays of 90 days or longer.
- More than 300,000 people applied for 12 openings to live anywhere on Airbnb for a year and are providing insights to help inform the company’s product development and upgrades.
Airbnb CEO and Co-Founder Brian Chesky has announced that he too will live on Airbnb. Starting this week in Atlanta, Chesky will stay in people’s homes in new towns or cities every few weeks, and return to San Francisco in the same way that many remote workers are returning regularly to the cities where they work in order to collaborate with colleagues. Chesky living on Airbnb will help to improve the design of the experience for people who can now live anywhere.
This Live Anywhere trend is like a decentralization of living, and it’s changing the identity of travel. Among the trends Airbnb expects to see are:
1. People will continue to spread out to thousands of towns and cities, and they will stay for weeks, months, or even longer.
- 100,000 towns and cities around the world have had an Airbnb booking during the pandemic.
- 6,000 places had their first-ever Airbnb booking.
- Long-term stays on Airbnb make up at least 50 percent of all recent Airbnb nights booked in Bangkok and Phuket.
- In Thailand, among the top most searched Thai destinations for long-term stays in 2022 are Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai, and Samui. Simultaneously, nights booked in non-urban destinations in Thailand have increased by more than 60 percent between Q3 2019 and Q3 2021.
2. More people will start living abroad, others will travel for the entire summer, and some will even give up their leases and become digital nomads.
- People want to explore new countries: Before the pandemic, international arrivals exploded from 25 million in 1950 to more than 1.4 billion in 2019, according to UNWTO.
- On Airbnb, long-term stay nights booked by families grew 75% from summer 2019 to summer 2021.
- The share of Airbnb long-term stay bookers who used their stays to lead a nomadic lifestyle grew from 2020 to 2021 — from 9% to 12%.
3. Cities and countries will compete to attract these remote workers, and it will lead to a redistribution of where people travel and live.
- More countries are changing their visa and tax rules, and more than three dozen countries currently offer some sort of digital nomad visa scheme.
- Keen to attract more long-term travellers and remote workers, Thailand has initiated a 5-year long-term resident visa and a smart visa initiative.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 about us and our industry that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such as “may,” “will,” “appears,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “could,” “outlook,” “intends,” “target,” “projects,” “contemplates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern our expectations, strategy, plans, or intentions. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release, including but not limited to statements regarding the expected policies of companies and expectations of people with respect to working remotely, expectations regarding travel trends; the travel behavior of guests; and the demand for travel; are forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot provide any assurance that these expectations will prove to be correct.
The following factors are among those that may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements:
- the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, the travel industry, and travel trends;
- changes in policies and regulations regarding inbound travel across countries; and
- future changes or disruptions in the travel and hospitality industries or economic downturns and the other factors discussed under “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” and “Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on February 26, 2021 and any subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC.
Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and reflect our beliefs and opinions as of the date of this press release. We expressly disclaim any obligation to update or revise any information contained in this press release, except as required by law.
