While the COVID pandemic has by no means been favorable for travel, a certain type of experience seems to be on the upswing. According to Phocuswright, Airbnb, the accommodation provider, is seeing a surge in demand, having on July 8th attained 1 million nights’ worth of bookings in a single day. That’s a level that Airbnb hasn’t attained since the first week in March. Two thirds of the bookings were for non-city destinations.
Although Airbnb did not report on the reasons for the increased demand, an Airbnb accommodation starts to look more desirable than a traditional hotel accommodation in COVID times. Health authorities around the world tell us that indoor public spaces present heightened risk. The common areas of a hotel – reception area, restaurant, bar – resemble those spaces much more so than does an Airbnb single family home or condo. The hotel has a fair number of people pass through, the Airbnb not as much. Also, while Airbnb locations are interspersed in all of the places people live – city and country and everything in between – hotels tend to be located in population centers, precisely the locations more and more of us are seeking to avoid in a pandemic.
So if you’re feeling cabin fever and want to escape the city or your own home for a little while, you might want to consider joining the ever growing crowd looking to travel, but to travel safely. And, as always, a car rental from AutoRentals.com is a way for you to get wherever you want to go, whenever you want to go, safe and sound.
