48% of UK residents did not take an overseas flight in the last year

"Just 1% of English residents are responsible for nearly a fifth of all flights abroad, according to previously unpublished statistics.
The figures, published in a Department for Transport survey, also reveal that the 10% most frequent flyers in England took more than half of all international flights in 2018. However, 48% of the population did not take a single flight abroad in the last year.
The new findings bolster calls for a frequent flyer levy, a proposal under which each citizen would be allowed one tax-free flight per year but would pay progressively higher taxes on each additional flight taken."
Source:  The Guardian, 25th September 2019

Booking.com has more than 5m property listings

"Booking.com announced Tuesday (April 10) that it has hit five million reported listings in homes, apartments and other unique places to stay.
In a press release, the company said that the number of reported listings within this category has grown 27 percent compared to the previous year, growing faster than traditional options, such as hotels, motels and resorts. The milestone of five million listings makes it the global leader, said the company, trumping Airbnb.
“We know that travelers are passionate about exploring a huge variety of different stay experiences, including everything from apartments to houseboats,” said Olivier Grémillon, vice president at Booking.com, who leads the business’ strategy in homes and apartments. “We’ve been pushing hard to add as many amazing homes and apartments to our platform as possible in order to guarantee that we’re providing the choice and diversity our customers crave. We’re definitely proud of this milestone and will continue to strengthen our leadership position in this space. No matter what type of experience our customers want, we aim to connect them with the unique stay that’s just right for them.”"

Source:  PYMNTS, 11th April 2018

More than 3m guests stayed at an Airbnb property on New Year's Eve 2017

Guests on @airbnb over New Year's

'17: 3 million+
'16: 2 million
'15: 1.1 million
'14: 540,000
'13: 250,000
'12: 108,000
'11: 31,000
'10: 6,000
'09: 1,400

— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) December 31, 2017

Airbnb 'is Profitable'

"Late last year, as many technology startups were struggling to stay afloat, Airbnb Inc. quietly reached a milestone few of its peers had achieved: profitability.
Airbnb became profitable for the first time during the second half of 2016, according to people close to the company. The home and apartment-rental company anticipates it will maintain profitability in 2017 before interest, taxes and amortization, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the private company’s earnings.
Reaching profitability puts Airbnb on a very different footing than its fellow upstart, Uber Technologies Inc. The ride-hailing company lost an estimated $3 billion last year, according to a person familiar with the matter. Uber was consumed with keeping fares low to compete with rivals like Lyft Inc. at home and with garnering market share in China, a country it finally abandoned over the summer by selling its local business there to homegrown rival Didi Chuxing."

Source:  Bloomberg, 26th January 2017

More than 2m people stayed in an Airbnb over New Year 2016-7

Guests on @airbnb over New Year's

'16: 2 million+
'15: 1.1 million
'14: 540,000
'13: 250,000
'12: 108,000
'11: 31,000
'10: 6,000
'09: 1,400

— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) December 31, 2016

16% of our nights booked are over 28 days. 30% over 8 days.

— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) October 25, 2016

17m people stayed in Airbnb accommodation in summer 2015

"Five years ago, in the summer of 2010, roughly 47,000 people stayed with Airbnb hosts. This summer, nearly 17 million total guests stayed with Airbnb hosts around the world. That means that in the last five years, summer travel on Airbnb has grown 353 times over."
Source:  Airbnb's Summer Report, September 2015
Note - 'Summer' means 'end of May to early September'

On 1st January 2015 550,000 people stayed in an Airbnb property

On Jan 1, 550,000 people stayed on @Airbnb. Explore in our interactive map here: http://t.co/nxusjcOYsf
— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) January 12, 2015

There are over 1 million homes listed on Airbnb

We now have 1 million homes on @airbnb. Adding over 3,000 a day.
— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) December 7, 2014

The Top 10 San Francisco Airbnb hosts collectively control 248 property listings

"The top 10 San Francisco hosts on Airbnb collectively control 248 listings, or 5.2 percent of all the places for rent. They include property managers, hacker hostels and even hotels.
The No. 2 host by listings, Come2SF, with 51 houses and apartments, is also a property management company."

Source:  SF Chronicle, June 2014

Note - The full article has maps, and lots more data about Aribnb in San Francisco

180 UK Airbnb landlords list five or more properties in London

"Airbnb is a website that's fast becoming the bane of the hotel industry. The Silicon Valley startup, founded in 2008, lets people list their spare rooms – or even their entire home – for holiday leases online, opening up thousands of new places to stay in cities across the world.
It's one of the most frequently mentioned examples of the "sharing economy" the internet is powering; instead of companies and professionals leasing out houses and hotel rooms, individuals can make a bit of extra cash by sharing their home.
But the site's listings may not be what they first seem. Data from the site analysed by the Guardian suggests that professionals and buy-to-let investors with empty properties have carved out a huge presence on the site. The rise of these semi-professional landlords is causing concern among hoteliers and is potentially an extra headache for those struggling to get on the capital's crowded housing ladder.
The analysis of more than 13,000 Airbnb listings in London – by far the site's biggest UK market – shows more than 6,600 are leasing out an entire home or flat, rather than a spare room. More than 1,500 people listing properties on the site have multiple listings, with 180 listing five or more properties or rooms across London.
Some of the site's super users have dozens of properties across the city at once: one, who went by the name Petra, had 127 active listings on Thursday. The account did not return requests for comment.
The study also suggests many listings on the site – which vary from a £20-a-night spare room staying with a family in Newbury Park to a £900-a-night warehouse in Shoreditch – are rented out frequently, rather than just once or twice a year when the resident is away.
Using the number of reviews as a minimum for how often a property has been leased (visitors don't have to leave any feedback, meaning the actual number of stays may be higher) shows that more than 3,100 of the London listings have had more than 10 visits, while 1,600 have had more than 20 stays in the short life of the UK arm of the site."

Source:  The Guardian, 20th June 2014

Airbnb hosts 1 million guests a month

15 million total guests have stayed on Airbnb. It took us nearly 4 years to get our 1st million, and now we have 1M guests every month.
— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) June 11, 2014

Note - Brian Chesky is Co-founder and CEO of Airbnb

Airbnb has 23,000 residences listed in Britain

"Britain’s bed and breakfast and hotel operators are calling for the authorities to create a level playing field on safety regulations and inspections amid intense competition from people renting spare rooms on the cheap via the website Airbnb.
The site founded in 2008 has 23,000 residences listed in Britain, offering spare rooms or whole flats to tourists looking for alternatives to hotels. The American website’s parent company was valued at an estimated $10 billion by a recent fundraising, which makes it more valuable than Intercontinental Group, the world's biggest operator by number of rooms."
Source:  The Times, 19th April 2014
Note - It also said that the average UK host makes £3,000 in revenue from Airbnb, but I couldn't c&p that bit because it's behind the paywall

Renting accommodation on airbnb in America is significantly cheaper than staying in a hotel

"But is it actually less expensive to stay at an Airbnb than a hotel? Can you rent an entire apartment for less than the cost of a hotel? We suspected that Airbnb rentals are less expensive than hotels, but are they really?
So, we decide to find out. We looked at every major city in America and compared the cost of a hotel to the cost of renting an apartment on Airbnb. We discovered that Airbnb apartment rentals cost 21.2% less than staying at a hotel. And if you’re on a budget, you can save 49.5% if you decide to stay in a private room at a host’s house instead of staying in a hotel."
Source:  Research by Priceonomics, 17th June 2013
Note - lots more stats given in the full report

The economic impact of airbnb on Paris & San Francisco

"Highlights from these first two reports cover just one year and include the following.
Airbnb produces significant economy benefits
Airbnb generated approximately $240 million in economic activity in Paris
Airbnb generated approximately $56 million in economic activity in San Francisco
Guests on Airbnb stay longer and spend more
The average Paris hotel guest visits for 2.3 nights and spends $584 during their stay. The average Paris Airbnb guest, on the other hand, visits for 5.2 nights and spends $1,151 during their stay.
The average San Francisco hotel guest visits for 3.5 days and spends $840. The average San Francisco Airbnb guest visits for 5.5 days and spends $1,045.
Airbnb hosts rent out the homes they live in
83 percent of Airbnb hosts in Paris use Airbnb to rent the home they live in.
90 percent of Airbnb hosts in San Francisco use Airbnb to rent the home they live in.\
Airbnb hosts use their income to make ends meet
56 percent of Airbnb hosts in San Francisco said they use their Airbnb income to help pay their mortgage or rent.
46 percent of Airbnb hosts in Paris said they use income for essential living expenses such as rent and mortgage payments.
Airbnb brings tourists to new neighborhoods
72 percent of Airbnb properties in San Francisco are located outside the central hotel district.
70 percent of Airbnb properties in Paris are located outside the main hotel districts.
The San Francisco study was conducted in 2012 and the Paris study was conducted in 2013. The Airbnb community has only gotten bigger since the studies were conducted, so we expect these numbers will increase as Airbnb continues to have a positive economic impact in cities around the world"
Source:  airbnb Public Policy blog, 12th June 2013
Press release - San Francisco Study
Press release - Paris Study

Instant messaging is more popular than search in China

Click to enlarge

Source:  CNNIC via Marbridge Daily, 15th January 2013

Stats on travellers & smartphones in the US

"Travelers frequently use smartphones and tablets to research and plan trips.
Forty-eight percent used a tablet or smartphone to plan their trip – while 44 percent used a mobile device to dream of their next trip
Eighty-six percent of mobile planners already knew their destination when conducting research on a mobile device
Forty-seven percent relied on friend and family recommendations and 40 percent relied on Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) for destination ideas
Deals and promotions (64 percent), photos (55 percent) and recommendations (38 percent) are the most useful types of content for those seeking trip ideas
Travelers are comfortable making purchases on mobile devices.
Of travelers who own a mobile device, 61 percent have made a purchase on a tablet in the last six months while 51 percent have made a purchase on a smartphone, showing that travelers are more likely to purchase travel on tablets versus smartphones
Of those who have booked travel on a mobile device, 80 percent of smartphone users and 90 percent of tablet users would do so again
Travelers will continue to use mobile to plan travel, but easy-to-use apps will drive usage.
Of the 44 percent who plan travel on a mobile device, 44 percent used an app
Nearly 60 percent of mobile airline and 56 percent of hotel bookers used an app to book their reservation
Accessibility (43 percent), ease of use (35 percent) and app availability (33 percent) drive travel bookings for smartphone users"
Source:  US Research by Expedia & comScore, reported in a press release, 14th November 2012

Mobile accounts for more than 20% of Orbitz' hotel bookings

"When Orbitz began putting together a strategy to target mobile commerce in late 2009 there were still plenty of questions as to how fast the travel-booking industry was going to move to mobile. Now, three years later, the company ranks fourth overall in projected mobile sales for 2012. With gross mobile bookings projected to surpass $700 million in U.S. sales by the end of the year, Orbitz is only behind Amazon, Apple and Marriott in the annual guide.
"Mobile is a new opportunity to reach people and some of those people have different demographics than our other customer segments,” said Chris Brown, VP of product strategy for online and mobile at Orbitz. “We are looking at how do we target people that have a tendency toward mobile."
Over the course of 2012, more than 20 percent of hotel bookings on Orbitz overall are coming from mobile devices, added Brown. Last-minute bookings for same-day reservations are especially high on smartphones. An average of 60 to 65 percent of all daily bookings on smartphones are for check-ins that evening, he said. When Orbitz first began taking hotel bookings on mobile in 2010, it only accounted for a few percentage points."

Source:  Clickz, 12th November 2012

Note - Clearly 'mobile' includes tablets

10 million guest nights have been booked on Airbnb

Between June 2008 and June 2012.  Quoted in this infographic
Source:  Airbnb, August 2012

75m reviews & opinions have been posted on TripAdvisor

Click here to see infographic
Source:  TripAdvisor blog, 26th July 2012
Note - I'm guessing any comment on the site counts as an 'opinion'

5m guest reservations have been made on Airbnb

"Airbnb, the online marketplace where you can rent out your house or spare room to travelers, announced today it has reached a milestone of five million guest reservations overall. The company also celebrated its strong international growth, with property listings in more than 19,000 cities in 192 countries around the world.
In terms of reservations alone, 2011 was a great year for Airbnb. The company launched in 2008 and it took about three years to reach one million bookings. In the last year alone, more than four million reservations were made, bringing Airbnb’s total to a cool five million.
The company also brought in some serious funding in 2011. Last July, investors gave Airbnb $112 million at $1.3 billion valuation, bringing the company’s total funding to $119 million dollars.
[...]

The online listing and booking service is paying off for many in a big way; earlier this week we reported that New Yorkers are making an average of $21,000 per year by renting out their spaces to travelers. The legality of renting out spaces for short periods of time is questionable in some cities, but people have flocked to the service none the less."

Source:  VentureBeat, 26th January 2012