Airbnb poll reveals that hosts use income to pay rising costs, while guests discover new travel destinations

The findings among tens of thousands of Hosts and guests who utilised the site last year reveal how Hosts are using Airbnb income despite rising inflation and a travel revolution.

The findings among tens of thousands of Hosts and guests who utilised the platform last year reveal how Hosts are using Airbnb money despite surging inflation and a travel revolution.

Hosting Can Help Keep Prices Down

As prices went up around the world and in the US last year because of things outside of our control, hosting became an important way to deal with higher prices.

When asked why they rent out their space on Airbnb, they said:

About 35% of Hosts around the world said that one of the reasons they host is to help pay for the rising cost of living1.

Nearly 40% said they host to make money so they can pay their bills.

Over 40% said they host to make extra money to spend.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) says that the Food Price Index went up steadily all of last year, reaching an all-time high in March of this year.

Nearly half (46%) of Hosts around the world said they use the money they make from hosting to buy food and other necessities that have become more expensive.

Hosts also use the money they make on Airbnb to help pay for one of life's most basic needs: a place to live.

Nearly 45 percent of Hosts around the world said that the money they made from hosting helped them stay in their home in 2021, and more than 20 percent of that group said that hosting helped them avoid foreclosure or being kicked out.

53% of Hosts said they use the money they make from hosting to make improvements to their homes, like getting a new roof or a long-desired new kitchen.

Hosts also said that they think the money they make from hosting will become more important. About 30% of hosts said that they expect to depend more on Host income in the coming year.

Prices are going up, but so is the money that Airbnb hosts are making.

In the US, the average Host made more than $13,800 in 2021, which was 85% more than in 2019.

The average US household makes $13,800 a year, which is more than two months' worth of pay.

As mentioned in the article linked above, the rise in income isn't limited to long-time Hosts. In the US, new Hosts also saw their income rise in 2021, making more than $1.8 billion, which is 34% more than in 2019.

Guests find new places to go and stay longer.

Millions of people now have more options about where they can live and work because of the pandemic.

We made more than 150 updates to the Airbnb service last year, and just last week, we made the biggest change to Airbnb in a decade. This was done to make sure that Airbnb is keeping up with the travel revolution and is best suited for guests' new freedom.

Guests are staying longer, which is a trend that started last year and has continued into the first quarter of 2022.

Long-term stays reached an all-time high in the first quarter of 2022, more than doubling from the first quarter of 2019, and they still make up about one out of every five nights booked.

Also, almost half of the nights that were booked in Q1 2022 were for a week or longer.

As part of the big change we announced with our 2022 Summer Release, we launched Airbnb Categories, a redesigned user interface that makes it easy for guests to find millions of unique places to stay they never knew existed in places they may not have known existed, which helps spread tourism outside of typical destinations.

We also made Split Stays, a new feature that lets guests split their trips between two places to stay when they are looking for a place to stay for a week or longer.

When guests use Split Stays to look for longer stays, they will usually see about 40% more listings.

These new features and the fact that many listings have amenities like a kitchen, office space, or backyard could be why 20% of guests surveyed said they would have changed the length of their stay3 if they couldn't stay in a listing.

Over 40% of those who said they would have changed their plans said they wouldn't have stayed as long, and over 33% said they wouldn't have come at all.

More than half of the guests surveyed (54%) said they definitely or probably would not have gone to the area where they stayed if there hadn't been a listing.

The last two points of data show how much Airbnb is helping people find new places to visit.

This is also shown by the fact that since March 2020, first-ever bookings have been made in more than 8,100 cities and towns around the world.

This summer, guests have already made plans to stay in over 72,000 cities and towns.