The growing popularity of directly-booked, short-term vacation rentals has been considered a serious threat to the travel agency community.
The biggest disruptor in the space, Airbnb, recently published a white paper on Travel Industry Wire, describing its business during the pandemic, some of its results during the second quarter of this year, its research into travel beyond COVID, and how it’s planning for the future.
It describes big successes for the company, even as the world continues to try to climb out of a pandemic. Airbnb revealed it has now surpassed 1 billion guest arrivals globally. Hosts have earned $6 billion USD off the platform.
That’s a lot of guests and a lot of revenue. It would be easy for travel advisors to throw up their hands in despair over lost accommodation business.
But in Airbnb’s outline of its strategy in the post-pandemic world, there are kernels of learnings - and actionable tactics.
How AirBnB’s ‘Travel Revolution’ can Work for Advisors
Airbnb believes the post-pandemic travel pie will only get bigger.
“At Airbnb, we believe that travel will be back, bigger than ever - just not like it was in 2019.”
So even though Airbnb takes a big slice, a bigger pie means there’s room for ambitious travel advisors to carve out their own profitable piece of business.
1. The pandemic sent travellers away from popular cities.
Airbnb saw tourism spending shift from city to country. “During popular travel times over the course of the pandemic, we have seen more guests travel to New York’s Hudson Valley than New York City, more to Brittany than Paris, and more to the Costa Blanca than to Barcelona.”
The trend was at least partly motivated by the desire to avoid infection rates in more populated areas. It’s a move that is expected to continue.
And it’s one that travel advisors can tap into, finding, familiarizing themselves, and promoting product to its clients that satisfies this demand.
2. Travellers are looking for group trips.
Family and friends have been separated for months. In addition, travellers have come to see bubble trips among a select - and safe - group as being the safest way to travel. This corresponds with Airbnb’s findings:
“Families and friends came to see whole homes, often either in nearby or remote locations, as the safe, responsible way to gather together,” the paper says.
But advisors can meet bubble travel needs, too, in scaled accommodations like multi-room bookings on smaller or more spread out properties, or even villas in resorts that don’t just provide kitchens, but full resort amenities that add even greater value than a DIY vacation rental.
Advisors can also add value through upsells arranging private group transfers, and other touches that help groups of family or friends enjoy not just reconnecting, but the travel process itself.
3. ‘Bleisure’ travel will drive long-term bookings.
More than ever, the lines between business and leisure time have blurred, spurred on by work-from-home (WFH). It’s a trend that Airbnb sees growing.
Although business travel has been slow to resume, the company sees trips being more considered - and longer for the added travel effort. Those business travellers will tack on pleasure travel, too as the ‘work week’ has become less well-defined.
According to Airbnb, “We’re seeing an uptick of about 2.5x in the share of long - term stays for self - reported business travel, and long - term stays (28+ nights) were our fastest - growing trip - length category in Q2 2021.”
Travel agencies - especially those who have specialized in business travel - have an opportunity to upsell clients on long-stay ‘bleisure’ trips they can plan for those clients.
There’s overlap with family travel, too.
“Longer weekends that blend work and leisure, made possible by part - time remote work, also will be part of the future. In the US, extended weekends are on the rise: 3 - and 4 - day weekends with families are up 70 percent from Q2 2019 to Q2 2021."
The consultation process- the sweet spot for travel advisors which technology platforms famously fail to provide - can help tap into this market by providing travel planning for bleisure/ family long weekend trips that add value beyond simple accommodation.
4. Remote Work is here to stay and it changes everything.
Technology that allows workers to be nearly anywhere and still get the job done will have lasting effects on the travel industry.
As Airbnb says, “People are captivated by the prospect of travel blurring with living.”
Remote work arrangements, “will give people unprecedented flexibility to book… for seasons at a time. In Q1 and Q2 2021, we saw more bookings for long - term stays in Florida than in any other quarters in Airbnb history.”
During the pandemic, hotels and resorts began to modify their offerings to accommodate exactly this type of travel.
A travel advisor who has familiarized and marketed themselves in this area of expertise is well-positioned to become the go-to expert for clients and families hoping to make this kind of lifestyle change.
