US: The latest report published by vacation rental data provider AirDNA suggests that in many U.S. states, the lockdown may have whetted the American appetite for travel in a way that even professionals in the travel sector could not have predicted.
Investigating year-on-year growth has found that in spite of the Covid-19 outbreak, new bookings on platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo are up 20 per cent year-on-year across the United States.
The report’s interactive map allows users to compare the number of new bookings made on vacation rental sites from May – June 2019 to May – June 2020 for over five hundred destinations in the United States.
Leading the rebound are beachside destinations, mountain towns, lakeside getaways – and most destinations within driving distance of a major urban hub.
U.S. states that saw the biggest boosts in Airbnb bookings include West Virginia, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Wyoming and Delaware. California’s Big Bear Lake saw over 2,200 per cent growth in an unprecedented five-week stretch.
On the bottom end of the spectrum, Illinois, New York, Hawaii, and Massachusetts are still struggling to equal last year’s bookings.
AirDNA CEO Scott Shatford said: “We were amazed to see that despite the plummet in travel worldwide caused by the coronavirus outbreak, when you look at the statistics year-on-year, short-term rental bookings have made an exceptional comeback. This just serves to demonstrate once again how crucial it is to track macro booking trends alongside local market trends.”
Three weeks ago, AirDNA also revealed that there had been a sharp 127 per cent climb in new bookings made on Airbnb and Vrbo in a six-week sprint across the globe.
To see the full report, visit the AirDNA website here.
