Today, Airbnb is releasing the first results from its latest survey of Hosts and guests around the world. The findings among tens of thousands of Hosts and guests from around the world, including India, who used the platform last year provide insights into how Hosts are using their Airbnb income in a time of broader economic challenges such as soaring inflation and how guests are using the platform amidst a travel revolution.
Mitigating rising costs with Hosting
As external forces pushed inflation higher around the world last year, income earned through hosting on Airbnb became an essential part of dealing with higher prices and combating rising costs of living. In response to a question about why they host their space on Airbnb:
● Almost a third of the Hosts surveyed in India said one of the reasons they host is to earn money to help cover the rising cost of living.
● Nearly 3 in 10 Hosts said they host to earn money to make ends meet.
● Over one-third of the Hosts said they host to earn extra spending money.
● Almost half of the Hosts considered hosting on Airbnb to be their primary occupation, and 4 of 10 Hosts surveyed confirmed that they host guests at their primary home.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Food Price Index steadily increased last year, up to an all-time high in March 20222. Against the backdrop of higher prices for everyday goods, nearly half of Indian Hosts said they use the income earned through hosting to buy food and other necessities that have become more expensive.
Hosts surveyed also indicated that they expect that income earned through hosting will become more important, with approximately 60 percent saying they expect to become more reliant on Host income in the next year.
People to People Connection – Hosting to meet people from different cultures
More than half of Hosts surveyed in India are hosting on Airbnb to meet people from around the world. Almost half of Hosts want to connect with people from different countries to know about their culture and share more about the Indian culture with them.
Guests discover new places to stay, longer on Airbnb
The pandemic has changed the way people travel globally, with millions of people now more flexible about where they live and work. Last year, we deployed more than 150 updates to the Airbnb service, and just last month, we introduced the biggest change to Airbnb in a decade – to ensure that Airbnb is supporting the continuing travel revolution and optimizing for a new flexibility of guests.
In a trend that began last year and has continued into Q1 2022, guests are staying longer – essentially living on Airbnb. Globally, long-term stays on Airbnb were at an all-time high in Q1 2022, more than doubling in size from Q1 2019, and continue to represent around one in every five nights booked. In addition, nearly half of the nights booked on Airbnb in Q1 2022 were for one week or more.
As part of the major change unveiled in our 2022 Summer Release, we launched Airbnb Categories, a redesigned user interface that makes it easy for guests to discover millions of unique homes they never knew existed in places they may have never known to exist – helping to spread tourism outside of typical destinations.
We also launched Split Stays, an innovative feature that splits guests’ trips between two homes when they’re searching for a week or longer. With Split Stays, guests will typically see around 40 percent more listings when searching for longer stays.
The launch of these innovative features and many Airbnb listings’ amenities – such as a kitchen, office space, or backyard – could be why:
● Approximately 20 percent of Indian guests surveyed indicated that if an Airbnb listing was not an option, they would have changed their length of stay.
● Of that group that said they would have changed their plans, almost half of them said they would not have stayed as long and almost one-third said they would not have come at all.
● Almost half of the Indian guests surveyed stated either they definitely or probably would not have visited the neighborhood in which they stayed in an Airbnb listing was not available.
The latter data points illustrate the level to which guests are discovering new places to travel because of Airbnb.
- This is also reflected by the fact that since March 2020, globally, more than 8,100 cities and towns received their first-ever Airbnb bookings
- In India, since March 2020, over 140 cities and towns got their first-ever Airbnb bookings. These included bookings in lesser-known and off-the-beaten-path destinations like:
- Bhilai, Chhattisgarh – one of the major industrial city as well as an education hub of central India.
- Chanderi, Madhya Pradesh – a small 11th-century town located in the northern part of Madhya Pradesh, known for its quaint forts, hills and elegant hand-woven Chanderi sarees.
- Patan, Gujarat– Patan was the capital of Gujarat’s Chavda and Chalukya dynasties in medieval times and is known for its history.
- Jalpāiguri, West Bengal – a small city located very close to the Himalayas and lies on the banks of the Teesta River which is the second largest river in West Bengal after the Ganges. Jalpaiguri is famous for its traditional handicrafts especially cane and bamboo crafts.
- Khammam, Telangana – the fourth largest city in the state of Telangana. The district is famous for its historical significance and the coal reserves in the region.
- Globally, Airbnb guests have already planned stays in over 72,000 cities and towns this summer.
