Tag: Airbnb Philippines

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Airbnb Announces Relief Program Supporting Filipino Guests Impacted by COVID-19

    Airbnb has recently announced a new way it will support guests as they navigate the unexpected impact of a recent surge in COVID-19 cases with its Guest COVID Support Program.

    The company is introducing the program to provide relief to guests no longer able to proceed with their previously booked reservations due to unexpected travel disruptions caused by government mandates such as border closures or mandatory extended quarantine requirements.

    For guests in these situations who are unable to obtain full refunds under their Hosts’ cancellation policies, Airbnb will provide relief in the form of a travel coupon for 50 percent of the cost of the unrefunded portion of the reservation. The company is funding this program with UD$20 million initially to help defray these financial impacts to guests and ensure guests know that it is listening to their concerns.

    This program is effective immediately and applies retroactively to reservations that (1) have a check-in date on or after December 1, 2021 and (2) had to be cancelled by the guest due to border closures, government mandates and certain other Omicron-related travel restrictions not in effect at the time of booking. If guests had reservations for stays with check-in dates on or after December 1 and they had to cancel in advance of check-in due to unexpected travel disruptions caused by government mandates, they are eligible for relief under this program.

    For example, if a traveler in October booked a stay in Manila with a check-in date for late December — and Manila’s restrictions on outside travel were announced after the date of booking but before the date of check-in — this program would retroactively apply. However, if a traveler books a stay in Manila today while the same travel restrictions are already in place, the program would not apply. Guests who believe their canceled reservations meet the program criteria should contact Airbnb’s 24/7 Community Support team.

    This program is meant to support guests who have encountered extreme and unexpected government-mandated travel disruptions due to Omicron and through no fault of their own. Other circumstances such as a guest testing positive for COVID just prior to a reservation will still be covered by Airbnb’s Extenuating Circumstances policy and therefore will not be eligible under this new program. Additionally, extreme travel disruptions such as earthquakes and wildfires that are not related to COVID-19 are also covered under Airbnb’s Extenuating Circumstances policy.

    “Since the World Health Organization’s declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic in March 2020, Airbnb has continued to prioritize public health. Our guiding principle has been that people should not travel or host if they are sick with this virus,” shared Amanpreet Bajaj, Airbnb general manager for Southeast Asia, India, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

    He continued, “We are grateful that our Host community as a whole has sought to offer guests greater flexibility — with almost two thirds of active listings globally now offering moderate or flexible cancellation policies. Travellers have been hit hard, particularly with sudden travel restrictions and border shutdowns. We understand that our guests are trying to navigate in a really dynamic environment, and so we’ll be stepping up our support for them.”

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    Airbnb Makes Living Anywhere Possible for Filipinos as the Travel Revolution Becomes a Reality

      Remote and hybrid work have untethered many people from the need to be in an office every day, driving the biggest change to travel since the advent of commercial flying.

      For the first time, millions of people can now live anywhere.

      On Airbnb’s platform, the following trends have been observed:

      — One out of every five gross nights booked in Q3 were for stays of 28 days or longer.

      — Nearly half of nights booked in Q3 were for stays of at least seven days, up from 44 percent in 2019.

      — In the 12 months through September, more than 100,000 guests booked stays of 90 days or longer.

      — More than 300,000 people applied for 12 openings to live anywhere on Airbnb for a year and are providing insights to help inform our product development and upgrades.

      Airbnb CEO and Co-Founder Brian Chesky recently announced he too will live on Airbnb. Starting this month in Atlanta, Chesky will stay in people’s homes in new towns or cities every few weeks, and return to San Francisco in the same way that many remote workers are returning regularly to the cities where they work in order to collaborate with colleagues. Chesky living on Airbnb will help improve the design of the experience for people who can now live anywhere.

      Brian Chesky for Airbnb

      This Live Anywhere trend is like a decentralization of living, and it’s changing the identity of travel. Among the trends Airbnb expects to see are:

      1. People will continue to spread out to thousands of towns and cities, and they will stay for weeks, months or even longer.
        • 100,000 towns and cities around the world have had an Airbnb booking during the pandemic.
        • 6,000 places had their first-ever Airbnb booking.
        • On New Year’s Eve, nearly 4.5 million guests stayed on Airbnb in more than 53,000 places around the world with over 40 percent of nights booked being more than 1,000 miles away from guests’ origins.
        • In Q3 2021, over 85 percent of long-term stay nights booked in the Philippines were for stays in urban destinations. Metro Manila, Metro Cebu and Baguio emerged as the top most searched destinations for long-term stays.
      2. More people will start living abroad, others will travel for the entire summer, and some will even give up their leases and become digital nomads.
        • People want to explore new countries: Before the pandemic, international arrivals exploded from 25 million in 1950 to more than 1.4 billion in 2019, according to UNWTO.
        • On Airbnb, family long-term stay nights grew 75 percent from summer 2019 to summer 2021.
        • The share of Airbnb long-term stay bookers who used their stays to lead a nomadic lifestyle grew from 2020 to 2021 — from 9 percent to 12 percent.1
        • In the Philippines, 45 percent of Filipinos polled want to rent out their homes and travel.
      3. Cities and countries will compete to attract these remote workers, and it will lead to a redistribution of where people travel and live.
        • More countries are changing their visa and tax rules, and more than three dozen countries currently offer some sort of digital nomad visa scheme.
        • Airbnb is already helping a range of urban and rural destinations in the United States let remote workers try living there, from Chicago to West Virginia and Northern Maine.

      [1] Airbnb internal survey of 16,000+ respondents across Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Spain and the US from December 9 to 14, 2021.