Brian Chesky, co-founder of Airbnb is preparing for a 'new era of global travel'. Photo / Getty Images
Brian Chesky, co-founder of Airbnb is preparing for a 'new era of global travel'. Photo / Getty Images
At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, travel businesses around the world went into free fall.
Flights were grounded, hotels turned into quarantine sites, cities became ghost towns and with customers hunkering down at home rather than going on holiday – revenue for the world's biggest accommodation provider tumbled 72 per cent year on year.
As the world starts to reopen, with safe travel bubbles and easing restrictions, Airbnb has announced more than 100 new changes and updates to its platform that will not only impact guests – but hosts as well. The changes are what CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky says will gear up the company for the new era of global travel.
Airbnb said the past year has forced the accommodation and experience provider to focus on flexibility for guests in terms of destination, dates and listings, while hosts will now be able to list their property in 10 simple steps.
Speaking to news.com.au, the 39-year-old billionaire said the world of travel was seeing "three fundamental shifts in travel as people become less tethered and more flexible".
It's a trend he warned that even by 2022 when some travel abroad is expected to have resumed once again – will never be like what we experienced in a pre-pandemic world.
"In a world of more flexibility, we are never ever going back to the world of 2019," he said. "The world is never going back to 2019. And if the world is never going back to 2019, it means the world of travel is not going back to 2019.
"We are in a whole new world and we are never going back. Travel and living will continue to blur together and people will increasingly have fewer one year leases.
"Fewer people will think travel is something you do one or two nights, and you will see longer and longer term stays by living nomadically and less tethered."
In the past six months since travel has somewhat rebounded as people started working remotely – often away from home – Chesky said one of the biggest change in store for the world is the slow decline of travel for business.
Chesky said he believed three main trends would continue long after coronavirus ended: People will travel less for business and more for pleasure, more travellers will look outside top destinations and consider smaller communities, and they'll be more interested in meaningful travel versus tourist spots.
Larger cities have been the hardest hit regions around the country, given many are choosing to jump in their car and visit a new town outside the busy cities.
Even at the ending of local lockdowns in June last year, data on consumer spending showed a "Halo Effect" around urban centres, with accommodation seeing a boost in regional destinations, according to Eftpos transactions seen by Dot Loves Data. Over the Queen's Birthday Weekend last year, spending in central Christchurch was down 72 per cent, Wellington 35 per cent and Auckland 26 per cent, year on year.
Across the Tasman Airbnb's report on 'Travel and Living' indicating that rural nights booked in Australia jumped from 18 per cent for winter 2019 to 42 per cent in 2021.
But given business travel is likely to be "changed forever" – Mr Chesky says the likelihood that city hosts will continue to take a hit financially remains prominent until borders open.
"Travel and living are starting to blur together," Mr Chesky said.
"Hosts in cities all over the world have taken a hit, while hosts outside of the cities have seen more business than they ever have. The pandemic lead to the acceleration of adoption of the internet to really fundamentally change travel in a way we have never seen, and I don't think we are ever going back to the world of 2019.
"This is the biggest change in travel since WWII."
