Airbnb, the informal short-term accomodation rental website du jour, has shared some data that it says reflects its economic impact on the economies of some of world’s major cities. Sydney makes the list; apparently Airbnb foot traffic contributes $214 million to the local economy, supporting some 1600 jobs.
Although it’s obviously in the best interests of Airbnb to share this rather positive-sounding data, it says that its survey of Airbnb customers and hosts reveals that almost a third of guests would not have been able to afford a trip without staying in a Airbnb residence. Interestingly enough, the average age of Australian guests is 42 — that’s quite a bit older than we had expected.
30,000 customers went through Sydney’s thousands of temporary rental properties in the survey’s 2012-2013 reporting period. Airbnb guests apparently spend an average of $1822 on their trip, as opposed to the $1071 spent by a non-Airbnb tourist. It helps that Airbnb users have more money to spend; 77 per cent have a college degree.
More generally, over 11 million guests have patronised the 550,000 Airbnb homes around the world, staying an average of five nights in any one residence as opposed to 2.8 nights in an average hotel. Over 80 per cent of hosts share the one house in which they live — presumably temporarily moving out to stay with a friend or partner while Airbnb guests are in town.
We’ll bring you the data from other Australian Airbnb hotspots when it becomes available. If you like stats, check out Airbnb’s economic impact data on its website. [Airbnb]