Airbnb banking on vaccine rollout, easing restrictions to continue Philippine growth

Online rental platform Airbnb Inc. expects revenues to grow further this year in the Philippines, as the vaccination program against COVID-19 accelerates and restrictions are eased.

According to Airbnb co-founder and chief strategy officer Nate Blecharczyk, there were 39,000 listings in the Philippines which remained largely unchanged even with the pandemic.

"Over the course of the pandemic, there was an initial large decrease in travel and then also as that recovered after the first few months, what we saw was a large bias towards domestic travel," he said in a virtual briefing.

Airbnb posted a 5% revenue growth in the first quarter to bring its top line to a record high, while its net loss stood at $1.2 billion.

"There's light now at the end of the tunnel. Vaccinations are rolling out, restrictions are loosening, and so we expect all of travel to rebound... We expect that to be true for the Philippines as well," said Blecharczyk.

Citing research from Oxford Economics, Airbnb said it contributed to $1 billion in economic impact and supported over 160,000 jobs in the Philippines in 2019.

Moving forward, Airbnb expects this to increase as it rolls out new features such as flexible searches which allows users to search for accommodation with more general parameters.

It has also launched seven Host Clubs across the country in Cebu, Baguio, Metro Manila, Rizal, Western Visayas, Lapu Lapu, and Quezon.

These clubs will connect hosts, guests, small business owners, and local community leaders involved in the hospitality industry.

"Airbnb has weathered the pandemic quite well given the fact that tourism has been hit so hard, because Airbnb has been able to adapt very quickly," Blecharczyk said.—AOL, GMA News