Airbnb’s latest quarterly results reveal that the rental company may be recovering from a years-long slump caused by the pandemic.
According to the firm’s Q4 2021 results, revenue grew 80% year-over-year to $1.5 billion, exceeding pre-pandemic levels.
In Airbnb’s shareholder letter, the company revealed four distinct reasons why business is booming again: popularity of rural travel, the reemergence of city travel, decreased pandemic deterrence, and the growing demand for long stays.
According to Airbnb, non-urban travel has grown by 45% since Q4 of 2019, indicating that people are seeking to go to places that are less crowded and risky during the ongoing health crisis.
Despite the growth of rural travel, Airbnb said city bookings have reached levels similar to what was seen in the Q4 of 2019.
Although the pandemic has undoubtedly impacted the amount of traveling people have done in recent years, the recent Omicron wave did not deter bookings as much as previous variants. This indicates that society has become more willing to live alongside the realities of Covid-19.
Lastly, the growing number of remote and hybrid workers means that many are dipping their toes into the world of digital nomadism. With this, Airbnb says that long-stay bookings of 28 days or longer accounted for over one-fifth of nights booked during the last quarter of 2021.
All of this points to a promising future for the booking platform, which saw its stock grow by over 3% this week as it continues to adjust its services to the new blend of working and living.
