Listings tripled in the last year in South Africa for Airbnb, a website for people to list, find, and rent lodging.
More than 130,000 guests stayed in accommodation they found on Airbnb in South Africa in the last year, and many guests said they stayed longer and spent more in local shops and restaurants as a result of the sharing economy, Traveller24 reported.
The way people travel is changing, driven by a new economy where people place greater value on experiences over ownership, said Nicola D’Elia, general manager for Airbnb Africa and Middle East.
Airbnb has grown the tourism pie in Cape Town, attracting guests who might otherwise not have come, the company said.
Encouraging the idea of openness, hospitality and service across the city — not only in the heavy tourist areas — is important in Cape Town, which has an reputation for being rather “insular and closed off,” said Tim Harris, CEO at Wesgro, the tourism, trade and investment promotion agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape.
Airbnb listings allow visitors to book accommodations online and stay in their hosts’ homes. Based in San Francisco, the website was founded in 2008 and has been available in South Africa since 2009. It is privately owned.
Airbnb has more than 1.5-million listings in 34,000 cities and towns in 190 countries. South Africa has the highest number of listings in Africa and the Middle East, with 20,000 of 50,000 listing. Morocco is No. 2. Of South Africa’s 20,000 Airbnb listings, half are in Cape Town, BusinessDayLive reported.
The site stipulates that each rented room is in some way unique, and that there is a homeowner available for personal interaction.
Travelling this way makes for a more authentic travel experience, said Velma Corcoran, regional marketing consultant for Airbnb. Guests spend money in the neighborhoods where they stay based on recommendations that might otherwise not have been considered.
These authentic and local travel experiences with personal, insider knowledge provided by hosts helped drive a 250 percent increase in South African travel on Airbnb in 2015 compared to 2014, according to the accommodation sharing website.
In Cape Town, 27 percent of visitors in Airbnb’s top South African market said they wouldn’t have come at all or stayed as long if it hadn’t been for Airbnb, according to new data. Half those guests said they spent more in local shops and restaurants, often following their hosts’ recommendations, Traveller24 reported.
Even if it’s just for a night, staying with local hosts will allow visitors to really live there, according to Airbnb.
There were 7,500 Airbnb hosts in South Africa in 2015 and almost half were freelancers, entrepreneurs, or self-employed. More than half the hosts — 66 percent — said they share space in their primary residence.
Listings are not only concentrated in heavy tourist areas, D’Elia said. Accommodations allow visitors to experience an alternative side of city and the tourism economy is getting spread around more evenly across more of South Africa.
In South Africa, the average length of stay is 4.9 nights, with 2.5 people in the average travel group. Airbnb users give their hosts an average score of 4.7 out of 5, according to Airbnb data. Guests come from all over the world. Hosts typically share their homes occasionally throughout the year, earning $2,260 USD per year.
Cape Town has 10,000 Airbnb listings, followed by Johannesburg with with 2,000 and Knysna with almost 1,000. This shows Airbnb hosts are helping to drive visitors across the Cape province, allowing them to experience more of the Western Cape, said Wesgro’s Harris.
