In April, as COVID-19 caused travel restrictions and lockdowns, demand for short-term vacation rentals shrank, and many people suddenly found themselves working remotely.

Large numbers of Airbnb hosts - no longer able to make their mortgage payments from short-term stays - began to abandon ship in favor of longer-term rental platforms like Rightmove, Zoopla and Furnished Finder.

Some independent projections suggest that at least 25% of the world's workforce will be working remotely multiple days per week by the end of 2021.

Accordingly, Airbnb began to alter its business model to concentrate on finding landlords and potential guests who are interested in long-term stays. In order to retain hosts, Airbnb now gives preferential treatment to hosts who offer long-term stays, including advantageous positioning both on the Airbnb website and in search.

Airbnb now has listed more than 6M properties in more than 65,000 cities that accept monthly guests, and most of these offer discounts for longer stays.

The average Airbnb stay has now increased from 4 days to 14. And a recent survey found that nearly 50% of Americans who are working remotely have used Airbnb to find a remote workplace away from home.