Airbnb is seeing a spike in rental bookings by almost 50 percent, as lockdown restrictions are easing down across countries. In fact, the home-sharing company had a higher number of night bookings between 17th May 2020 and 3rd June 2020 than in the same period last year in the US, as per reports. The number of bookings has also increased in other countries like New Zealand, Portugal, South Korea and Germany. Bookings have also increased for similar companies like Vrbo and Booking.Holdings.inc.
Airbnb Sees A Surge In Summer Vacation Bookings Post-Lockdown
The global travel industry has come to a standstill after the coronavirus pandemic. The hotel industry, too, has faced a massive blow. When the lockdown was declared, Airbnb had thousands of unprecedented cancellations and its revenue fell drastically. To cope with the losses, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky had to come to a decision of laying off nearly 1900 out of 7500 employees. However, the company is on its road to recovery now. In a statement to Bloomberg, Chesky said that it’s ‘really, really clear’ that people are restless to get out of their houses. He added that they do not necessarily want to avail a flight and are not comfortable yet in leaving their home countries. Chesky further stated that work from home is now becoming working from any home.
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What Else?
As per reports, the percentage of bookings from within around 322 kilometres of the hotels has risen from only one-third in February to about 50 percent in May. For travel post-COVID-19, people are choosing cars over flights and small locations instead of big cities. According to CDC, the safest modes of travel now are solo driving and walking. The very reason why road trips might be one of the popular ways of travel after lockdown. Also, Airbnb and Vrbo have launched some confidence-boosting policies including heightened standards of sanitization and flexible cancellations.
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Though the bookings have gone up, Chesky is still waiting for the markets to stabilize for things to return to normal all over again. So, once the travel bans are lifted in your place, maybe you can book a lavish stay in a nearby luxury cottage for a day or two, either solo or with your family.