Airbnb has reportedly raised $1 billion in order to direct its attention towards three core features, hosts, long-term stays and Airbnb experiences. This new investment comes from private equity firms such as Silver Lake and Sixth Street Partners.
The housing and tech company is making the move towards long-term stays in the near future. During the later parts of March, Airbnb has reported that the number of long term stays doubled. Furthermore, 80% of Airbnb hosts now accept long-term stays. Not to mention, 50% of the app’s listing now provide discounts for stays of longer than one month.
This year, the company has reportedly seen bookings for more than a year. Furthermore, the longest booking this year has extended beyond 700 days. Much of this shift is driven by students, healthcare professionals in residencies and other contract workers.
In order to propel this change, the company’s landing page will now highlight long term stays. In addition, they will work to promote the benefits of long term stays to hosts. Users and hosts will begin to see these changes as early as this week.
