Airbnb: "Mild Moderation"

From “A New World Of Travel” (May 2022): “Airbnb management remains convinced that the pandemic, most notably due to the widespread adoption of remote work, has led to ‘a new world of travel’ [particularly on average trip length]… While long-term stays are hugely additive to Airbnb, I do question what role they will play over the next 3-5 years (in terms of driving the next leg of N&E bookings growth)… I think it’s an open question whether long-term stays will continue to drive the majority of Airbnb’s incremental bookings growth in the years ahead, as they did from 2019 - 2021. If that forecast is accurate, it suggests that N&E bookings growth will be harder to come by.”

This is a part of Airbnb’s business I’ve continued to closely focus on at TSOH, largely because it’s a use case where I believe they are very well positioned relative to traditional accommodations (like hotels). That said, my ability to track their progress has been hindered by a lack of consistent disclosures: management used to report its quarterly mix of 7+ day stays and 28+ day stays, but then they chose to stop disclosing the first metric in Q3 FY23.

This quarter, management took the next step: