Airbnb increases annual Swiss guest count to nearly one million
The online housing platform Airbnb is growing rapidly in Switzerland: Over the past twelve months, more than 900,000 guests have rented accommodations in the country through the platform. As a result, the number of guests has roughly tripled over the past three years.
The importance of the sharing economy provider for the local tourism market is also increasing in rural areas. Hosts in places far from the big cities recorded twice as strong an increase in guest arrivals as those in the centers, according to Airbnb's Travel Report Switzerland 2018 published on Thursday. For the winter season, which is now beginning, it is becoming apparent that the towns of Unterseen, Crans-Montana and Scuol will be on trend. They currently registered the proportionally highest growth in bookings on the platform in this country, it continued.
The average age of guests booking via the platform was 38. On average, the group size of travelers in Switzerland was 2.4 people, and they stayed in Switzerland for 3.4 nights.
Most guests from Switzerland itself
Broken down by origin, the largest number of guests - almost 200,000 - came from Switzerland itself. In second and third place were travelers from the USA and from neighboring France. In contrast to classic hotels, the hosts are mainly private individuals, Airbnb further wrote.
They rent out their homes to travelers for short periods, for example, when they are traveling for business or pleasure. The average age of Swiss hosts is 44. Fifty-five percent are women, 45 percent men. In total, there are currently around 35,800 accommodations on Airbnb throughout Switzerland. Just two years ago, there were only 17,000 listings on the platform in this country.
Airbnb now charges visitor taxes
The days when Airbnb was a niche product in Swiss tourism are thus definitely over. This is also evidenced by the fact that the company has now agreed to collect visitor's tax for overnight stays in several cantons. Specifically, the company has concluded agreements to this effect in the cantons of Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft, Zug and Zurich. As part of a digital collection process, the fees are collected and then forwarded by Airbnb. In Zurich, the company had also joined the Zurich Tourism Association in the process in May of this year. Worldwide, the company has already concluded such agreements with over 400 cities or regions. (SDA)
