Financial analysts at the Cowen Group expect Airbnb to have 500 million bookings a year in the next five years, and 1 billion in the next 10.
That’s up from "just" 79 million this year—a staggering 1,166% increase.
The homesharing site’s success initially surprised Cowen’s team—but it's bought into Airbnb’s prowess, after a survey of 1,400 US hotel and short-term rental consumers in Q1, Bloomberg reports.
One finding from the survey: Once you go Airbnb, you don’t go back.
Over 75% of participants who used the homesharing platform three to five years ago came back to the site in 2015—and those users tend to be more satisfied than hotel guests.
About half of the survey’s respondents had heard of Airbnb, and less than 10% have used it—apparently not everyone is as up to speed as Beyoncé, who slept in an Airbnb for her Super Bowl performance.
“This suggests Airbnb could grow two to three times over time from increased brand awareness alone," Cowen says. “82% said they would be willing to try Airbnb in the future—in fact, 66% of those 82% said they planned to try Airbnb in the next year.” [Bloomberg]
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