Airbnb is expecting a record 4.5 million guest arrivals on New Year’s Eve in listings all around the world
• Globally, top trending destinations for NYE include Accra, Louisville and Haymarket
• Hong Kongers choose to travel to Okinawa and Lisbon for NYE
• Airbnb continues to improve safety initiatives to protect you this holiday season
Hong Kong – December 23, 2019 – For more than a decade, millions of hosts and guests have been forging connections across the globe through travel on Airbnb. This New Year’s Eve, more travelers than ever are doing just that on Airbnb, and many of them are doing it in local neighborhoods and lesser known cities. We are expecting a record 4.5 million guest arrivals on New Year’s Eve in listings all around the world, that’s more than double of what we registered just three years ago. In fact, 95 percent of Airbnb guests are staying outside of the 10 biggest travel destinations this NYE1. For Hong Kong travelers, the top three trending destinations for NYE include Okinawa, Lisbon and Fukuoka.
Where Travelers are Celebrating
Thousands of travelers have been planning for this night all year – there were 80,000 NYE wish lists created in 20192. From the grand finale of a year celebrating return in Accra, Ghana, to a Vietnamese island, to Joinville, Brazil — the only city outside of Moscow with a Bolshoi Ballet school — below are some of our top trending destinations for the holiday based on growth in guest arrivals from last year3.
1. Accra, Ghana (352%)
2. Louisville, KY (243%)
3. Haymarket, Australia (145%)
4. Duong Dong, Vietnam (132%)
5. Kofu-shi, Japan (130%)
6. Mont-Dore, France (123%)
7. Ellicottville, NY (121%)
8. Lagos, Nigeria (121%)
9. Joinville, Brazil (121%)
10. Are, Sweden (120%)
Where Travelers are Staying
This New Year’s guests have spoken. A unique retreat breaking from winter status quo is an ideal way to kick off the new decade. Guests made 7.6 times more searches for pools and 2.5 times more searches for jacuzzis than fireplaces for the holiday weekend5, and over the holiday:
• 152 guest arrivals in windmills
• 673 guest arrivals on islands
• 1,447 guest arrivals in treehouses
• 2,759 guest arrivals in castles
• And more than 19,000 are checking in to farm stays6
How Airbnb is Working to Protect You this Holiday Season
Beginning this holiday season, we will have dozens of specially trained agents supporting this enforcement and handling rapid response in our online and telephone channels for urgent neighborhood issues. These are all components of Airbnb’s commitment to continuously innovate so that we can prevent, detect and respond to safety issues. In the last two years, our investments in safety and consumer support have outpaced our revenue growth. And just the past few weeks, we’ve committed an additional US$ 150 million for new policies, protections and tools that have been recently announced.
If you’re traveling or hosting, make sure to check out our safety recommendations for hosts and guests and catch up on our Community Standards at Airbnb.com/Trust. Our policies have also recently been updated to ban “party houses” and “open invite” events and to increase enforcement against reckless behavior and nuisance from bad actors. Today, we are launching new features and policies to help our community stay safe in 2020:
• Neighborhood Support
To help resolve complaints about disturbances or nuisance in the communities our hosts call home, we are launching an updated global Neighborhood Support Page at www.airbnb.com/neighbors, a feature on our website and app where neighbors and community members can submit their concerns about unauthorized parties, excessive noise, unsafe behavior, trash, parking and other disturbances.
• Manual Review of High Risk Reservations
In USA, Canada and Mexico, we are expanding the manual screening of high-risk reservations flagged by our automated systems. This will help identify reservations that could potentially present issues and stop unauthorized parties before they start. We will expand this technology and human screening to more markets in 2020.
• Guest Guarantee
If a guest checks into a listing that does not meet our accuracy standards, we will rebook the guest to a new listing of equal or greater value, or offer 100% of their money back. Claims should be made on our contact channel or via the Airbnb app. You can check out more details at: Guest Refund Policy.
• Noise Detectors
Airbnb launched a discount coupon program this week for hosts from around the world to purchase noise detector devices to help address potential unauthorized parties and neighborhood disturbances. These devices help deter and alert for noise issues, all while protecting guests’ privacy.
• Local Emergency Services Feature
Many guests traveling to a foreign country and region may not know how best to reach local authorities in the event of an emergency. The Airbnb app both on iOS and Android mobile phones now has an easy feature to make a direct call to local authorities in the event of an emergency. The feature is initially available for residents of the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia when traveling in 31 countries and regions, with plans for expanded access to additional countries and regions in the coming months.
1Based on Airbnb internal data of projected guest arrivals in the top 10 travel destinations (per Mastercard ranking) from December 31, 2019 to January 5, 2020.
2Based on Airbnb internal data of wish lists that were created with “New Year’s Eve” in their title (in multiple languages).
3Based on Airbnb internal data of year-over-year growth in guest arrivals for New Year’s Eve weekend 2019 compared to New Year’s Eve weekend 2018.
4Based on Airbnb internal data of the number of guest arrivals by guest size for December 31 2019 to January 1, 2020.
5Based on Airbnb internal data of total numbers of searches including December 31, 2019 date that contained the amenities pool, jacuzzi and fireplace.
6Based on Airbnb internal data of total number of bookings by unique listing type for December 31, 2019 – January 1, 2020.
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About Airbnb
Airbnb is one of the world’s largest marketplaces for unique, authentic places to stay and things to do, offering over 7 million accommodations and 40,000 handcrafted activities, all powered by local hosts. An economic empowerment engine, Airbnb has helped millions of hospitality entrepreneurs monetize their spaces and their passions while keeping the financial benefits of tourism in their own communities. With more than half a billion guest arrivals to date, and accessible in 62 languages across 191 countries and regions, Airbnb promotes people-to-people connection, community and trust around the world.
Media Contact
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Vanisha Dansinghani Joyce Chow
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Airbnb Contact
Marvin Ma
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E-mail: marvin.ma@airbnb.com
