Airbnb Looks to Recruit More Hosts to Meet Demand After Record 2021
Photo Credit: Airbnb Hosts in Chicago Airbnb
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By the numbers alone — around 4 million hosts — Airbnb hasn't made much progress in host recruitment despite marketing campaigns, easing the onboarding process, and pairing hosts with super host mentors. But there is a pandemic still going on, and Asia-Pacific has largely not rebounded.
After touting 2021 as "the best year in Airbnb's history, including a fourth quarter record for revenue and net profit, CEO Brian Chesky said the biggest opportunity in recruiting hosts in 2022 will be to continue to focus on signing up individual hosts.
Airbnb officials said 90 percent of its four million hosts are individuals, a level that has remained static over the last couple of years.
"So what we're going to do is continue to focus on individuals," Chesky told financial analysts during Airbnb's fourth quarter and full-year 2021 earnings call Tuesday after the market close. "We're going to continue to support property managers. We're continuing to invest in them. We also have hotels, but we think probably the biggest growth area is going to be individuals."
Host recruitment is key for all of the short-term rental platforms if it is to take advantage of the travel recovery, and Airbnb ran several advertising campaigns, and took steps to ease the onboarding of new hosts last year. However, the number of hosts in its ranks has remained stable
