NEW YORK, Sept 19 (Askume) – Vacation rental company Airbnb (ABNB.O) sees a big opportunity to grow its long-term rental business as short-term rentals in tourist hotspots such as Athens and Barcelona come under scrutiny.
Chief Executive Brian Chesky told the audience at a travel conference Wednesday night that the company is focused on growing its long-term rental business, defined as a stay of 28 days or more. Local governments around the world areBan short-term rentals in an effort to increase the supply of housing for full-time residents .
“30- to 90-day stays, monthly stays, seasonal stays, I think there’s a huge opportunity for growth,” Chesky said. He added that long-term rental bookings have increased over the past few years and now make up 17% to 18% of the company’s business, compared with 13% to 14% before the pandemic.
The company is focused on expanding its long-term rentals and experiences business, while also offering new services like pairing people who don’t have the time to become Airbnb hosts with people who want to be but don’t have to.
Chesky told the audience that the company sees sponsored accommodations listings as a billion-dollar revenue opportunity, and that he also studied the business models of Uber (UBER.N) and rival Booking Holdings (BKNG.O) .
Greece and Spain are among the latest countries to tighten vacation rental rules to ease housing shortages.
