Airbnb bookings already past pre-pandemic high in 2023

After seeing its bookings cut by more than 40% due to the Covid 19 pandemic in 2020, Airbnb bounced back remarkably well in 2021 and 2022. Fueled by the strong uptick in international travel in 2022, Airbnb saw its gross booking value (GBV) more than double compared to 2020, as the number of nights and experiences booked through the platform exceeded its pre-pandemic high. This year, the company is going from strength to strength, with the latest Q3 results already delivering bookings and GBV above the 2019 level and after nine months looking easily on course to surpass the highs set in 2022.

“Our Q3 results highlight a record travel season on Airbnb and our most profitable quarter ever. Over the last nine months we’ve added nearly 1 million listings globally and we continue to see demand for travel grow”, the company wrote in its latest letter to shareholders.

Even before the global tourism rebound in 2022, Airbnb had found a way to take advantage of the unique circumstances created by the pandemic. “We are undergoing the biggest change to travel since the advent of commercial flying,” the company said at the beginning of 2022. “Remote work has untethered many people from the need to be in an office every day,” resulting in millions of people who can live anywhere. As a result of this newly gained freedom, one in five nights booked on the platform in Q4 2021 were for stays of a month or longer and almost 175,000 guests booked a stay for three months or longer in 2021. (Statista)