Airbnb reveals summer travel trends for 2021 and over 100 upgrades

April Barber/Unsplash

As we quickly approach the summer months many of us are wondering about travel plans. Sticking close to home has always been a great option pandemic or not. When to go, where to stay, and what health and safety protocols are in place are important factors now more than ever. Airbnb has just announced 100+ upgrades across their entire service to meet a new era in travel. Inspired by the Arbnb Report on Travel & Living–a comprehensive analysis of Airbnb booking data and consumer research–revealing how guests are going from travelling at all the same times to all the same places, to living anywhere at any time, and for however long. The trend report also reveals how people are travelling this summer and where they are going. 

Here are some interesting findings...

Families drive and diversify travel:

Summer travel on Airbnb used to be largely smaller groups visiting big cities. But this summer, the most popular type of travel is families flocking to remote destinations from their big city homes. In fact, family travel has spiked from 27 percent of overall nights booked in summer 2019 to 33 percent in summer 2021 globally, 31 percent in the US; and of that family travel, 42 percent of the nights booked are in rural destinations, up from 32 percent the summer of 2019. (Family travel is defined as any travel booked with at least one child/infant)

The Great Outdoors trend is way up:

No surprise for us. This great escape to rural is a trend Airbnb is finding across all groups and locations. In 2015, rural travel accounted for less than 10 percent of nights booked globally, and in 2021, it now accounts for more than double that and is oftentimes triple that in many countries, including Canada (43%), France (45%), the UK (48%), Australia (42%), and the US (28%). Internationally, their typical top destinations are cities. Now, locations well beyond cities and top destinations for summer 2021–a departure from the top destinations just two years ago:

●  France: From Paris to Var
●  Italy: From Rome to Sardinia

●  Korea: From Seoul to Jeju

●  Spain: From Barcelona to Costa Blanca

●  UK: From London to Cornwall

Based on US guest bookings, rural stays near national and state parks, the Great Lakes and white sand beaches are all trending compared to 2019, with the top destinations on Airbnb for summer 2021 below:

●  Whitefish Mountain, MT (near Glacier National Park)

●  South County, RI

●  Bancroft-Madawaska, Canada (near Algonquin Provincial Park)

●  Panama City Beach, FL

●  West Yellowstone, MT (near Yellowstone)

●  Florida Panhandle

●  Northern Wisconsin (near Lake Superior and Chequamegon Nicolet National Forest)

●  Hilton Head Island, SC

●  Black Hills, SD (near Black Hills National Forest and Mount Rushmore)

●  Miramar Beach, FL

●  Park County, MT

●  Michigan Upper Peninsula (Great Lakes, Hiawatha National Forest)

●  Acadia National Park

Cities start to return to long term stays

Though rural destinations are trending this summer, travellers are starting to return to cities and for longer periods of time. The top three destinations for long-term stays on Airbnb are all cities. In New York, 62 percent of summer nights booked in the city are for long-term stays, and in Seattle and Los Angeles, long term stays for each are at 40 percent or higher this summer. This is true around the world, with other major cities leading their respective countries’ lists of most popular destinations for long-term stays:

 ●  Melbourne (Australia)

●  São Paulo (Brazil)

●  Montreal (Canada)

●  Paris (France)

●  Berlin (Germany)

●  Rome (Italy)

●  Seoul (South Korea)

●  Mexico City (Mexico)

●  Barcelona (Spain)

●  London (United Kingdom)

As mentioned, Airbnb has introduced over 100 upgrades to their system for both hosts and guests. The upgrades are inspired by the major shift in how people are travelling and the anticipation of a travel rebound. From how guests search on the site and app to a new 10-step process to become a host to a more flexible way of travel.

Here are some highlights...

I’m Flexible

Flexibility is at the heart of a new, improved browsing and booking experience that are introducing today with three new ways to search on Airbnb - Flexible Dates, Flexible Matching and Flexible Destinations.

Flexible Dates began rolling out in February to help simplify searches for the best places to stay.

Flexible Matching offers a wider selection of listing results when you search for a place to stay by surfacing homes just outside of your search parameters. This way, you never miss out on a great stay that falls just outside what was specified in a search.

Flexible Destinations is a new way to plan trips when finding a unique place to stay is more important to you than traveling to a specific destination. It helps you discover incredible properties in places you might not have thought to search for and adapts to your location.

Airbnb is also significantly improving search capabilities to help people find their ideal place to stay, leveraging one of the world’s most extensive property datasets. New filters will adapt to the season or location and allow people to search for homes near points of interest, such as national parks, or with very specific attributes such as whether the property has an ocean view or whether a fireplace is gas or wood-burning.

Making it Easier to Host

Airbnb is now making it even easier to become a Host with a brand new onboarding process that has been simplified from dozens of steps to just 10, supported by the latest technologies. Computer vision deep-learning models automatically arrange photos based on their guest appeal, while smart text suggestions help Hosts craft the best title and description for their listing. In the U.S., an integration with publicly available real estate data auto-fills details such as the number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Help is just a click away throughout the process. Streamlining and simplifying the process will help anyone who wants to host and take advantage of the coming travel surge onboard quickly to get their first booking.

World-Class Service

Airbnb is also improving community support by doubling the number of support agents this summer and expanding our support coverage from 11 to 42 languages. A completely redesigned Help Center will be easier to navigate by offering more personalized support to Hosts and guests.

Improvements Across the Entire Airbnb Experience...

Of the 100+ upgrades being showcased today, other highlights include:

GUESTS:

 ●  Faster checkout process - with reduced the number of steps for new guests to confirm their first reservation.

●  Arrival guide - Easy access to all the helpful information a guest needs (directions, door codes, Wifi and message the Host option) before check-in.

●  Updated reviews - Guests now have a fuller spectrum, from critiques to compliments, to rate their stay. Clearer Cancellations - Refreshed cancellation policies increase clarity for both guests and Hosts.

HOSTS:

●  All-new Today tab - A new centralized home base to make it easier for Hosts to manage bookings and daily tasks. Here they will see new booking requests, upcoming reservations as well as details of current guests and quick links to the most used Host tools.

●  New welcome to hosting page - A redesigned hub for new Hosts with helpful articles and testimonials as well as an improved tool to estimate potential earnings from hosting based on nightly rates and occupancy in their immediate area.

●  Inbox improvements - Messages now load up to 10 times faster and new features include Personalized Quick Replies which let Hosts reply with one tap to guests’ often-asked questions,and Scheduled Messages which automates sending reminders, like checkout instructions.

●  Dedicated Superhost support - A dedicated support team for Superhosts and Host Community Leaders giving our most experienced Hosts priority access to our most experienced support agents.

The Blurring of Traveling and Living

Many of these upgrades were inspired by a comprehensive analysis of Airbnb booking data and consumer research which reveals the extent to which the pandemic has fundamentally changed travel. With 4 million Hosts across more than 220 countries and regions and more than 900 million guest arrivals, Airbnb is in a unique position to see how travel is changing. Their analysis reveals three key trends:

1. In part due to remote work trends, people are less tethered and more flexible on when they can travel. Since the start of this year, they have seen more than 200 million date-flexible searches, 100 million of which used the new Flexible Dates tool.

2. Travel is being distributed to a much wider range of destinations. In the 12 months ending April 30 2021, Airbnb had bookings in 94,000 cities.

3. People are staying longer on trips. The share of stays 28 days or longer on Airbnb has increased from 14% of nights booked in 2019 to 24% in Q1 2021. In New York City as of April 30 2021, 62% of nights are now for long-term stays.

For a full list of all 100+ upgrades, please visit www.airbnb.com/2021.