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Emerging Trends

The big business of the short-term rental in the Phoenix metropolitan area

Airbnb reports staggering earnings at the mid-year mark

Posted 8/26/21

The Phoenix metropolitan short-term rental market is a booming business model for digital platform operators and residential hosts alike, a new report released by Airbnb illustrates.

The numbers …

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Emerging Trends

The big business of the short-term rental in the Phoenix metropolitan area

Airbnb reports staggering earnings at the mid-year mark

Posted

The Phoenix metropolitan short-term rental market is a booming business model for digital platform operators and residential hosts alike, a new report released by Airbnb illustrates.

The numbers reported by Airbnb are staggering: during the first 6 months of 2021, the company reports billions of dollars have changed hands throughout the United States. Turns out, the Phoenix area is part of the top of the list of high-revenue generating areas in the country.

“Dating back to the start of the pandemic, we were interested in looking at the new host income on our platform overall and to understand the economic opportunity around hosting,” said Sam Randall of Airbnb public affairs. “Hosts have made a lot of money. We put out a report looking at new-host income only and platform-wide the platform has made better than $1 billion from March 2020 to January 2021.”

Randall points out the report issued earlier this week highlights the most profitable global areas for new hosts.

“The idea here to really highlight the economic opportunity around hosting in these areas,” he pointed out. “We identify the most profitable areas of the country with only one host listing.”

Airbnb was born in 2007 when two hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home. It has since grown to 4 million hosts who have welcomed more than 900 million guest arrivals across over 220 countries and regions, the company narrative states.

In all, the report illustrates 60% of these new hosts are women, who have made more than $83 million in the United States since January 2021. Additionally, new senior hosts aged 60-plus have earned more than $30 million.

The report shows half of new listings that were both activated and booked in early 2021 got a reservation request within four days, and the average annual earnings per host who had welcomed at least one guest was $9,600.

  • Atlanta: $8.5 million
  • South Florida Gulf Coast: $8 million
  • Phoenix: $6.3 million
  • Los Angeles: $6.2 million
  • North Carolina Coast: $4 million
  • Smoky Mountains: $3.9 million
  • Poconos: $3.5 million
  • Houston: $3.3 million
  • Catskills and Hudson Valley: $3.1 million
  • Denver: $2.9 million

“The demographics of the area continue to make it right both for demand for travel as well as related opportunity when it comes to hosting Airbnb,” he said.  “In this report, we also look at new senior hosts, those over 60 years old, and they earned $60 million collectively. This is a new and growing trend we began to notice just prior to the pandemic.”

While the Phoenix metropolitan area will remain a growth market, Randall admits bad operators of certain rental products a part of the platform has translated into stricter measures and attempts to connect neighbors with Airbnb representatives directly.

“We are and have always been committed to ensuring neighbors are supported, which is why we created the neighborhood support line,” he said. “Dating back to the beginning of the pandemic, we have also been committed to banning party houses on our platforms and we continue to do that. Our established Halloween policy really speaks to that — it is really a no-brainer for us to do it again this year.”