With people living and working remotely since the pandemic, Airbnb revealed that more guests spend more on longer stays than at any point in the platform’s history.
Airbnb found that 20 percent of nights booked from July to September on Airbnb are for one month or longer.
Long-term stays have become the platform’s fastest-growing trip length based on bookings for 2022 as of September 30, 2021.
Airbnb’s new I’m (even more) Flexible feature is expanding its date range so travellers can now search for stays up to 12 months out (from six) with four new categories of unique stays to choose from: off the grid, Ski-in/ski-out, luxe and offbeat homes.
With more companies allowing their employees to work remotely, travellers wanted flexibility.
A consumer survey commissioned by Airbnb across South Africa found that 90% of respondents stated the importance of flexibility when booking travel post-pandemic. One third said they would consider living somewhere different from where their company is located and occasionally travel to their office.
According to the survey, South Africans anticipated a travel revolution. Almost half of the respondents believe post-pandemic travel will be back, bigger than ever - just not like before. Around 42% believe there will be a ‘profound shift’ in how people move around the world.
Wifi also plays a huge part in this. Guests on Airbnb have used the wifi filter more than 288 million times. Airbnb's new Verified Wifi allows Hosts to test their listing’s internet connection from the Airbnb app and have their wifi speed verified.
"With this upgrade, guests can be confident that they won’t miss a Zoom or be unable to binge-watch a series from their listing," Airbnb said in a statement.
Guests also want top of the range wifi. "Globally the top searched-for amenities for long-term stay bookers in recent months were wifi, pets-allowed, kitchens and washer/dryers," Airbnb revealed.
The company said long-term stay searches for listings with wifi and pets-allowed have increased by 270 percent. Airbnb's AirCover is top-to-bottom protection for every Host on Airbnb that also includes pet damage protection.