Airbnb Bookings Up 52% | Post-Vaccination Surge?

Urian B., Tech Times 14 May 2021, 04:05 am

When the pandemic hit, a number of industries were massively affected by it and others saw massive losses. One of the companies that was deeply affected by the pandemic was Airbnb which had seen a very rough year due to the guidelines and laws around safety which affected their business.

Airbnb Post-Vaccination?

Finally, it now seems like Airbnb is back up on its feet as more and more people are finally getting vaccinated. Although COVID-19 is not yet coming to an end, with the help of the vaccine, more and more people can slowly enjoy the freedom that they once had before the whole pandemic happened.

Airbnb Inc. reportedly started to beat Wall Street expectations for the very first-quarter gross booking and revenue that happened on Thursday. This was due to the speedy COVID-19 vaccinations as well as the easing restrictions that now encouraged more and more people to start checking into vacation rentals.

Airbnb Bookings Massive Jump

According to the story by Reuters, gross bookings have reportedly jumped a whopping 52% to a massive 10.29 billion in the quarter. This easily beat the analysts' previous estimations which were just at $6.93 billion. Airbnb stated that for guests that are aged 60 and above over in the United States, who were reportedly amongst the very first groups to be able to benefit from the vaccine rollouts, searches on their platform for a possible summer travel have reportedly increased by over 60% between February up to March 2021.

The San Francisco-based company now expects its second-quarter revenue to be somewhat similar to the previous 2019 levels, adding that the total return of urban as well as cross-border travel will most likely underpin growth over the period of the upcoming quarters. Airbnb is now also set to benefit from the increasing demand for longer stay as well as a shift to traveling along in groups by certain business travelers, according to Brian Chesky, the company's CEO in a post-earnings call.

Airbnb on the Pandemic

The company has weathered the whole pandemic better in comparison to their rivals as people started to offer larger spaces as well as locations away from a number of major cities in the current era of social distancing. It also recorded a whole surge in bookings in Britain after the government themselves had laid down plans in February to finally exit lockdown, while the easing of travel restrictions in France earlier this month had also lifted demand.

Also reported by The Star, Airbnb, however, noted that it was still way too early to predict if the recovery momentum would really continue at the exact same pace during the second half of 2021. The company's revenue reportedly rose by 5.4% to a whopping $886.9 million during the first quarter that ended on March 31. It exceeded estimates of $714.4 which was according to the Refinitive IBES data.

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Written by Urian B.