Rural Airbnb is booming
Airbnb is seeing a spike in the number of reservations in rural areas.
In a report released Tuesday, the home-sharing/renting website says 3.3 million guest arrivals occurred at rural listings in the USA over the last year. That’s a year-over-year increase of 138%.
According to company research, there are more Airbnb hosts than hotel chains in many rural communities in the USA.
In West Virginia, 75% of active Airbnb listings are located in rural areas, compared with 32.7% of hotel rooms. In New Hampshire, 71.9% of active Airbnb listings are located in rural areas, while 33.1% of hotel rooms are.
Chris Lehane, head of global policy for Airbnb, says many of the most popular rural destinations are near national and state parks or places that play host to youth sports tournaments.
“The Airbnb platform,” says Lehane, “brings tourism to places that haven’t benefited from it.”
The rural Airbnbs are among the company’s fastest growing segments, he says. It also has helped female Airbnb hosts. The majority of Airbnb rural hosts in almost every country studied for the report are women.
Many cities have moved to stem Airbnb’s growth at the behest of the hotel industry. Still, 46 of the 50 U.S. states have seen at least 100% year-over-year growth.
The states seeing the fastest growth: Oklahoma, Illinois, Arkansas, Missouri and Alabama.