Since the start of COVID-19, revenues from home rental companies have surpassed hotels in 27 global markets. Global restrictions on public gatherings and foreign tourists have impacted every major player in the travel industry, including vacation rentals as occupancy levels fell by almost half in mid-March to 33 percent by the end of June. However, there are definite movements forward in public-private partnerships to achieving results.

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For example, a key actor in the rental market is Airbnb. Airbnb has over 7 million listings that spans across 220 countries. Forced to lay off a quarter of their employees in the spring, Airbnb’s valuation has fell from a high of $31 billion to $18 billion.

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Airbnb’s co-founder and chief executive Brian Chesky is working towards serving all stakeholders in the community and adapting to changing forms of travel. France is an example of Airbnb’s longest standing partnership. Airbnb announced a new commitment to the French government as of February 8 to put home rentals at the forefront of France’s travel industry mitigation plan that caused financial burdens on small businesses and local governments. Airbnb will work to help hosts and guests follow social distance rules by launching a hotline for neighbors to report noise and will launch a campaign to promote year round, including off season, travel to French mountain and ski villages.

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France is just one of the many commitments made with governments and destination marketing organizations (DMOs) to promote local travel. Airbnb announced their milestone to establish 100 partnerships with this goal in mind by Spring 2021. In December 2020, Visit Tampa Bay, WWF Mexico, and the Mexican Federation of Tourist Associations were added to their list of DMO partners—now at 80 partnerships across 25 countries.

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In September 2020, Airbnb released City Portal, which provides governments and DMOs with tools, and sights into the Airbnb community. This includes industry first compliance tools to help governments create rental policies, dashboards for Airbnb data insights into market trends, resources such as the Airbnb Neighborhood Support hotline and Law Enforcement portal, and direct access to an Airbnb team member for one-on-one support. Kauai County in Hawaii became the most recent City Portal partner in January 2021 —bringing the number to 40 worldwide.

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These are great steps, and Trove is excited to see where this goes. At the core, many DMOs are looking to build a strategy for re-opening. Contact Trove for more information on our strategic planning work.

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