Airbnb CEO predicted on Thursday that travelers will start looking for smaller cities over larger cities in the future due to the coronavirus pandemic.
CEO Brian Chesky said more people will choose to drive to smaller communities and spend more time visiting family and friends than traveling to big cities for sightseeing. He also predicted that people would use air travel less for business meetings, according to Reuters.
Travel has declined during the coronavirus pandemic, as home stay orders and social removal warrants have forced people around the world to stay at home. Many Americans have refrained from seeing their families and friends for fear of spreading or contracting the virus from their loved ones.
Chesky expressed that people “yearn for what was taken away from them.”
“They don’t want to see Times Square,” Chesky said during an interview at the Reuters Next conference. “What they want is to see their friends and families they haven’t seen in a long time.”
At the start of the pandemic, Airbnb’s business fell 80% in nearly eight weeks, according to the medium. However, after more cities began easing restrictions and reopening businesses, the company began to see more travelers booking homes over hotels.
Many of these house rentals were in small towns, rather than larger cities, Reuters reported.
Airbnb recently announced it would cancel reservations made in Washington, DC, during President-elect week Joe Biden
Joe BidenCotton: The Senate has no authority to hold an impeachment trial once Trump leaves office. Marjorie Taylor Greene says she will file dismissal articles against acting director of Biden ICE who resigns weeks after taking office MOREinauguration after the insurrection at the Capitol on 6 January.
The service has banned people connected to last week’s violent riot at the Capitol from renting on its platform.