While business travel was one of the victims of the coronavirus pandemic, Airbnb plans to capitalize on the rediscovered work-life balance created during the shift to remote working.
Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, told CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Thursday that the home rental company is seeing signs that consumers are using the “ work-from-anywhere ” model that companies use to get out of the house and find a different environment.
“The lines between travel and living together are starting to blur,” he said in a “Mad Money” interview.
As opposed to just renting out Airbnb sites for vacations, more people are using rentals for residential purposes, said Chesky, who disclosed the company he founded last year. Initially scheduled for early 2020, the IPO was delayed until later in the year due to uncertainty about the global pandemic. The travel industry has been one of the hardest hit parts of the economy due to lockdowns introduced around the world to curb Covid-19.
Now remote workers have even more flexibility, choosing to take more three-day weekends or move for longer periods than before, as long as the Internet is available to connect to Zoom for work purposes, Chesky said.
“We think there will be a lot of travel to smaller cities as people get in the car and travel nearby,” he said.
“We are really adaptive and resilient to any kind of travel behavior. We learned that last year,” he added.
The comments come after Airbnb published its first quarterly report as a publicly traded company. It missed analysts’ expectations on the bottom line, although it exceeded estimates on the top line.
Airbnb said it made $ 859 million in fourth-quarter revenue, compared to FactSet estimates of $ 747 million and a net loss of $ 3.89 billion. Much of the losses were attributed to fees due to be disclosed late last year.
On Thursday, Airbnb shares fell sharply, closing 9% lower at $ 182.06, alongside other technology and fast-growing stocks during a brutal day on Wall Street.
To date, the stock is up 24%.