Airbnb reveals what New Zealand hosts are earning and where Kiwis want to stay

Australia-based New Zealand country manager Susan Wheeldon. Photo / Supplied

Airbnb says the trend towards long-term rentals in more far-flung places is continuing, and the accommodation sharing service has also revealed how much new New Zealand hosts have made, on average, during the past two years.

The company says new Kiwi hosts made just on $42 million in revenue in that period, an average of $8000 each.

That would put the number of new hosts around 5200, although Australia-based New Zealand country manager Susan Wheeldon says the company does not disclose exact numbers in each country, nor details of whether that tally had risen or fallen.

Host numbers globally had risen to 6 million and New Zealand had also experienced growth, she said.

"People are looking to their home to turn it into an economic engine. We're certainly very pleased with the number of hosts that we have."

For the first quarter of this year, global revenue grew to $US1.5 billion ($2.3b), exceeding pre-pandemic quarterly revenue by 80 per cent.

The company - which doesn't have an office in this country — listed in the US in late 2020 and its net loss narrowed to $US19 million from $1.2b the same quarter a year ago.

It says that two years since the pandemic began, a new world of travel has emerged. Millions of people are now more flexible about where they live and work. As a result, they're spreading out to thousands of towns and cities, staying for weeks, months, or even entire seasons at a time.

In 2019 the top 10 cities netted 12 per cent of revenue but this had fallen to 8 per cent in the first quarter of this year.

Wheeldon said this was happening in New Zealand too.

"New Zealanders have always had a love of adventure and I think they have, perhaps more than others, embraced the getting out of capital cities and getting out and about and obviously New Zealand's got such a long bach history that's embedded in the culture."

The top domestic destinations in searches by New Zealand guests so far this year (minimum of 10,000 searches) were: Lake Tekapo, Canterbury; Ohakune, Manawatū-Whanganui; Whitianga, Waikato; Martinborough, Wellington; Cardrona, Otago; Wanaka, Otago; National Park, Manawatū-Whanganui; Raglan, Waikato; and Twizel, Canterbury.

Wheeldon said greater numbers of New Zealanders wanted to live away from where they worked.

YouGov research commissioned by Airbnb late last year found 41 per cent of New Zealanders would like to live somewhere different from the location of their workplace, preferring to travel there only occasionally.

Airbnb says long term stays are at all-time high and domestic travel comprising more than half of the nights booked. Photo / Supplied

Almost half (48 per cent) of Kiwis said they now have more flexibility to travel wherever they want, with 60 per cent saying that post-pandemic, they'll be travelling less for work and more for leisure than they did before.

And the poll of 1000 people found 27 per cent of Kiwis said they are considering renting out their home to travel in the near future.

"The big surprise for Kiwis is one in seven would do it full-time and live constantly as a digital nomad, which is a pretty staggering figure," she said.

Airbnb has introduced its own "live anywhere, work anywhere," scheme for later this year.
Starting in September, employees can live and work in more than 170 countries for up to 90 days a year in each location, and move anywhere in the country, without their compensation changing.

There has been friction between the San Francisco-based company and bricks and mortar hotels, which invest a lot of capital and employ many workers.

But Wheeldon said the two parts of the accommodation sector were not necessarily in direct competition.

"We always look to grow the pie rather than trying to take from others," she said. "We both serve different parts of the market and we both have very different offerings. So I think we're quite complementary to hotels and vice versa."

Airbnb had hotels on its platform as well. Asked about Airbnb's view of bed taxes, she said the company was keen on a national system and wanted to partner with central government.

Bed taxes would be added as a supplement on top of other charges.

A spokesman added that Airbnb was committed to working with the Government to find ways to make it easier both for hosts to meet their tax obligations and for Inland Revenue to do its job.

"Indeed, we have been a vocal supporter of a mandatory, light-touch data sharing framework to make tax easier in New Zealand. This would provide the Government with the information it needs while also protecting privacy. In the meantime, Airbnb continues to ensure we are diligently following the rules and paying all applicable taxes in New Zealand and everywhere we do business."

He said the existing global tax system was not designed with today's increasingly digital economy in mind.

"Airbnb supports the work of the OECD to reform the global tax system and believes a fair, modern tax system is good for all stakeholders."

Travel costs are surging across the board and Wheeldon said this was the same for Airbnb properties, although she was not able to provide an average increase in rates.

Airbnb last week introduced changes to its search function where listings are now grouped by particular interest, as well as introducing a new feature, split stays, which widens search results to make it easier to divide a longer trip between two homes.