Airbnb’s global chief executive has suggested that the short lets platform may handle longer term rentals in future.
Brian Chesky, in an interview with the Financial Times, says long term rentals of up to a year could be “a huge opportunity” and would tap into the “digital nomad” concept of people working remotely, in foreign countries and on the move.
Currently only 18 per cent of gross nights booked in the second quarter this year were stays longer than 30 days, with extended stays of more than three months even rarer.
“Travel is our sweet spot. Eventually the big frontier for Airbnb is to go beyond travel” he said.
“In this post-pandemic world, there’s this . . . unrecognised market of a month, two months, three months, because people can work from laptops, people are going away for the summer.”
Airbnb’s plans include expansion of its housing offering as well as “things to do on your trip”. Chesky also highlighted a “long list of ideas” under consideration, including rental cars and dining advertising.
You can see the FT article here, although for some readers it may be behind a paywall.
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This is an interesting and potentially worrying move. Airbnb have dodged regulatory breaches internationally by playing the ‘we are a portal not an agent’ line. This move away from this will expose them considerably.
Whilst they are a great consumer platform, they are also renowned for bulldozing regulatory compliance- so how they approach the uk legislation will be interesting.
I’d be most concerned if I was openrent or any other landlord direct platform as this is a huge brand coming to market.
With Silverlake owning large stakes in Zoopla & Airbnb this is no real surprise- in fact probably the biggest surprise is that this didn’t happen sooner.
With Airbnb facing huge issues in some territories (like being banned in New York) they will have to pivot to keep growing.
Sounds like a good idea for landlords who want to let to people who are working in the country on a temporary basis.
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