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On Wednesday, August 7th, Airbnb’s stock took a hit, dropping 14% after the company’s Q2 2024 Earnings Call on Tuesday.
While the ensuing drop in the stock was related to Brian Chesky’s admittance that Q3 bookings in the US were expected to be lower than usual, the company does have a few aces up its sleeve, one in which is the launch of co-hosting.
The co-hosting marketplace is set to launch this October, marking a bold move for the company and potentially a desperate one.
In the call, Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb, said, “So, there are people that have homes, but they don’t have time. There are other people in the world that have time, but they don’t have a home. And so, there’s a Venn diagram of people today who have both and can host. But what if we can match those two people together? That would unlock a lot more inventory.”
While yes, co-hosting could open a lot of doors for the company and a growth in inventory, it’ll also open a pandora’s box of logistical hurdles for those wanting to stay in the app and the vetting process that’s needed to play matchmaker between the two audiences. It’ll be interesting to see how co-hosting really is different from the already common practice of property management that has long been a practice in the vacation rental industry.
Already you can add a co-host to your properties, typically a trusted friend or family member, to help you share the responsibility of managing your home and guests but the new co-hosting marketplace seems like it’ll expand into matching owners with co-hosts and vice versa.
Although not yet clear how co-hosting will work out for Airbnb, according to GoogleTrends, there is a clear rise in popularity for the search, “co-hosting” in the last few years. Whether this is enough to help Airbnb’s stock bounce back or not, we’ll see in October.
