Although the continual emergence of the new variants reminds us that we are not yet out of the pandemic mud, travel sentiment and trends indicate a sea change in consumers’ approach to COVID-times travel as a whole.
Following a holiday season that has seen double-digit increases in demand, bookings, and nightly rates, travel recovery – perhaps not as linear as we’d hoped it would be – is very much underway, and short-term rentals are catalyzing the ecosystem’s bounce back to greatness, stated Joseph Binestock, Director of Sales, Americas at Guesty.
An unprecedented two years for the industry created by the pandemic brought the benefits of flexible rentals into the spotlight. Flexible rentals provide privacy, flexibility, social distance, light-touch stays, mid-stay amenities and work-friendly facilities. In addition, new traveler personas have emerged
Summer has been hot already for bookings. From June to August, US volume and average nightly rates, overall, are up+58% compared to 2021 and 69% higher than 2019. Average nightly rates ($300 per night) are 26% higher compared to 2021 and 29% higher than 2019.
Bookings of 14 days and more are up 121% since 2019; and are 33% higher than 2020.
Airbnb reports that long-term stays of 28 nights or more remained its fastest growing category by trip length and accounted for 22% of gross nights booked in Q4, up 16% from Q4 2019.
The percentage of active listings accepting stays of 28 nights or longer was over 90% at the end of Q4. In 2021, nearly 175,000 guests stayed for three months or longer in an Airbnb.
AltoVita said 68% of companies are seeing an increased demand for extended stays and Vrbo said it’s experiencing a 68% increase in demand for 21- to 30-day stays.
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