As China eyes economic recovery following the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, travel providers in the region are weighing measures to get business back on track.
This includes hosts in the short-term rental market, who feel “confident” about the future of the sector, according to a recent survey from Airbnb.
Ninety-nine percent of Airbnb hosts in China say they feel positively or neutral about engaging in the short-term rental market following the outbreak, while 1% say they will “definitely not” participate once the crisis subsides.
Of the hosts with positive sentiments, 72% say they plan to maintain or increase their Airbnb hosting activity.
According to the company, Airbnb is among the main platforms for weekly and monthly rentals in the region. Its survey reveals that more than one-third of all weekly rental users and nearly one-third of monthly rental users have searched for lodging on Airbnb, and as the crisis begins to abate, 60% of Chinese hosts say they are willing to accept more weekly and monthly rentals.
As guests grow confident with traveling again, 97% or prospective travelers surveyed by Airbnb China say cleanliness is a top concern when looking for listings, while about 84% look at hosts’ steps to sanitize and 53% want hosts to provide disinfectants.
Prospective guests also say other travelers’ reviews of listings now matter more, with 80% looking for reviews of overall cleanliness, 75% for disinfection after checkout and 72% for high specific Cleanliness Scores.
To that end, Airbnb China is launching a “Rest Assured Stays” program that highlights listings with a high level of cleanliness and high sanitization standards; the program will also offer guidelines for home cleaning and sanitation for hosts.
As travel resumes, short-haul driving trips will likely be the first to recover, with Airbnb users searching for trips from Beijing to Tianjin and Qinhuangdao; from Chengdu to Chongqing; from Guangzhou to Shenzhen; and from Shanghai to Hangzhou, Nanjing, Ningbo and Suzhou.
Since the outbreak, searches for domestic listings for upcoming Chinese Labor Day holidays have increased by more than 2.5X compared with the same period last year, according to Airbnb internal data.
In 2019, Airbnb host income and guest spending in mainland China generated $3.6 billion, a 61% increase over 2018.