The travelling industry took a big hit in 2020 due to COVID-19. However, there were a lot of promising signs in 2021. According to the numbers presented by StockApps.com, Airbnb registered a 96% annual increase in its gross booking value in the past year.
Airbnb is an American company that acts as an online marketplace for lodging, home-stays and experiences.
Airbnb made $47b in Gross Booking Value in 2021
According to the numbers released by Airbnb, the company made $47b in gross booking value in the past year. The travelling giants registered a 96% increase from COVID-hit 2020. The company had suffered a significant decline in its earnings with only $24b made in gross booking value in 2020- a 37% reduction from $38b in 2019.
Until 2019, the travelling industry giants had seen a consistent increase in their business before it took a massive hit in 2020. However, Airbnb’s gross booking value in 2021 even surpassed the numbers from 2019. $47b earned in bookings in 2021 represents a 24% increase from $38b in 2019. Thus, Airbnb’s gross booking value not only recovered from the pandemic effect but also displayed growth from pre-pandemic times.
Number of bookings/experiences increased by 56%
The company witnessed a 56% in the numbers of net bookings/experiences booked on its platform. Accounting for cancellations and alterations, a total of 301m bookings were made on Airbnb in 2021. The growth in number of bookings is not as significant as observed in gross booking value. Another interesting point to observe is that the number of bookings in 2021 didn’t eclipse the number of bookings in 2019. Hence, in terms of number of bookings, Airbnb still hasn’t fully recovered from the effects of COVID-19.
This difference in growth of these two attributes indicates that the average booking value on Airbnb significantly increased in 2021.
In 2020, 193m bookings were done on Airbnb. This figure represented a 41% decline from 327m bookings in 2019. Hence, Airbnb also took a bigger hit to its bookings than its gross booking value in 2020.
Vyom Chaudhary, an editor at Stockapps.com, commented, “It’s a good sign for the traveling industry that Airbnb registered a bigger gross booking value in 2021 than in 2019. However, one must keep in mind that the recovery in terms of annual number of bookings is still not complete.”
