Gabrielle Russon
Florida destinations popped up in the hot spots this summer, Airbnb announced Wednesday as the online reservation platform is seeing signs people are anxious to travel again in the pandemic.
Six Florida spots placed in the Top 10 trending summer domestic destinations when U.S. guests searched in the first quarter, the company said.
The No. 1 trending spot was Florida’s Walton County. The other Florida destinations on the list were Cape San Blas (No. 2); Mexico Beach (No. 3); Fort Myers (No. 4); Cape Coral (No. 6); and at No. 9, Four Corners, which is the area near the borders of Lake, Orange, Osceola, and Polk counties in Central Florida.
In the pandemic, more people are booking Airbnb units for long-term stays. In the first quarter, long-term stays hit an all-time high, more than doubling compared to the same period in 2019. For every five nights booked, one of them was a long-term stay on the platform, the company said.
“The world has changed, and in 2022 people are traveling differently than they ever have before. Because of remote work, people are spreading out to thousands of towns and cities. Airbnb guests have already planned stays in over 72,000 cities and towns this summer,” Airbnb said in a press release.
The travel industry was slammed during the pandemic as many people were under stay-at-home orders and were worried about the virus’ dangers before the vaccine became widely available. By summer 2022, people are ready for their vacations again. Both domestic and international Airbnb bookings have rebounded to 2019 pre-pandemic levels, the company said.
“Domestic travel is strong and represents more than half of the nights booked in the first quarter of 2022 for summer stays and exceeds Q1 2019 levels,” Airbnb said in the press release. “International travel has recovered to pre-pandemic levels and continues to grow, with more nights booked for international summer stays compared to Q1 2021.”
Airbnb recently disclosed it was taking steps to crack down on unauthorized parties during the Memorial Day and July 4 holiday. One of those measures includes guests without a history of good reviews being prohibited from making one-night reservations in entire home listings during those summer holidays, the company said earlier this month.
