Airbnb ‘rebounding from COVID’

After slashing its workforce by a quarter, Airbnb says domestic bookings are now rising above 2019 levels.

In this file photo taken on June 13, 2018 shows US rental site Airbnb logo is displayed during the company's press conference in Tokyo. (Photo by Toshifumi KITAMURA / AFP)

Airbnb has rebounded from COVID-19 with domestic bookings rising above 2019 levels, as Australians look to get out of the house as lockdowns ease.

The US tech giant announced in May it was slashing 25 per cent of its workforce — about 1900 employees — and would pause its efforts in peripheral areas like transportation as COVID-19 shut down its operations.

Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk told The Australian his company was quickly bouncing back. According to statistics from the first week of June, Australian domestic bookings were up 4 per cent on the same time last year, while New Zealand bookings were up 39 per cent.

As of last week, same-state bookings in Western Australia were up 106 per cent on the same time last year, while Queensland was up 73 per cent, South Australia 54 per cent, Victoria 34 per cent and NSW 37 per cent. Eighty per cent of bookings last week were for stays in regional areas outside of capital cities.

Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk. Source: Supplied.

Mr Blecharczyk said total bookings from Australia were now at 80 per cent of pre-COVID levels, and that number was increasing every week.

“Over the course of two weeks, business dropped nearly 80 per cent. And you don’t know how long that’s going to last, and what the recovery would look like. So we planned for the worst and took dramatic action,” Mr Blecharczyk said.

 

“We prepared the company for the worst possible scenario, that it might last for 12 or 18 months or more, but fortunately we’ve been surprised by how fast things are recovering.”

He added that COVID-19 had forced the newly downsized company to focus purely on its fundamentals.

“It’s back to basics; it’s focusing on what made Airbnb successful,” he said.

“Frankly, what people want in this time Airbnb is uniquely qualified to provide. They want to get out of the city and explore places close to home. Well, we have tonnes of homes in these rural areas, basically in every village, town or forest you can find a listing, and not just a home but something very unique.”

The company is aiming to put travellers at ease with an “enhanced cleaning protocol”, with hosts who commit to following the program given a specific highlight on their listing.

2020 was supposed to be the year of a blockbuster IPO for Airbnb, and the executive said that may still be the case. The company is rumoured to have restarted conversations about going public this year, and in May it shored up its cash position by raising $US2 billion in new debt and equity,

“Nothing's off the table,” Mr Blecharczyk said. "Prior to this we had been very clear that we intended to go public this year. We were all all set.

“I think at this point it really just depends on market conditions, and we'll continue to watch how that unfolds... It's very hard to predict. But you know, meanwhile, it doesn't change how we operate the company. We've been operating as if we're public, in terms of all the kind of requirements and standards. So, it is technical milestone. But in the meantime, it's not holding back the continued growth of the company and our progress.”

Airbnb was formed in the wake of the global financial crisis, and Mr Blecharczyk said he expects the current pandemic to usher in a wave of new start-ups and innovation. He said in 2009 people the world over lost their jobs, and turned to companies like Uber and Airbnb for income.

“There will be a whole new generation of start-ups out of this," he said. "Consumer behaviour has suddenly changed...In the span of three months maybe a decade's worth of consumer behaviour has acclerated, and a new generation of companies can rise up to serve that.”