Airbnb sees benefits from frontloading marketing spend

Anticipating a rebound in travel, Airbnb, the online accommodation platform, is focusing its marketing spend on the first half of the year while also doubling down on brand building, and has already seen encouraging results from this strategy. 

Why it matters 

Success in the travel industry currently comes down to timing and having an adaptable business model. Airbnb’s decision to frontload spending to capture pent-up travel demand as lockdown restrictions ease appears vindicated by initial results. And, as the nature of travel changes, not having huge fixed costs is also playing in its favour. 

Takeaways

• In markets where Airbnb's new ‘Made Possible by Hosts’ initiative – described as Airbnb's first global brand campaign in five years – is running, overall traffic is up, first-time bookers are up, traffic from prospective hosts is up, and brand favorability is up.
  
• In Q1, 90% of traffic to Airbnb was unpaid or direct; traffic levels were similar to those in 2019, but marketing spend was 50% less.
  
• Almost a quarter (24%) of nights booked in Q1 2021 were for stays of 28 nights or longer.
• There has been a 30% growth in non-urban and vacation rental listings as people hit financially by the pandemic look for new sources of income.
• Airbnb is also launching a digital campaign to attract more hosts in “supply-constrained” areas, and will track return on investment by measuring the value of the hosts it recruits. 

Key quote

“People are traveling anytime, anywhere, and they’re staying longer. We think all these trends are here to stay … I think there is a shift from mass travel to meaningful travel” – Brian Chesky, CEO, Airbnb.

Sourced from Seeking Alpha