Airbnb leaves China due to local competition and lockdown

Airbnb will leave China: the competition with local companies and the impact of the pandemic have convinced the company. From the app and the site they will disappear so over 500 thousand accommodations Chinese by this summer.

Airbnb leaves China due to too much competition and lockdowns

The news comes from CNBC, which cites an internal communication within the company that has been circulating as of today. An important change of pace for Airbnb, which had started the own business in China since 2016. But the experts had pointed out that the business in the Chinese territory had never been very profitable for the app it allows find accommodation, tours, courses and much more.

In fact, local companies offering similar services had a strategic advantage that was difficult for the foreign company to recover. Airbnb’s Chinese turnover was estimated to amount to about 1% of the global total. Although there were over 500,000 accommodations offered in the area.

Since 2020, the pandemic has also forced Airbnb to adapt around the world. But in China, where the the rigor of the lockdown was and is greater that in many other countries, finding the right momentum to restart the business was particularly complicated.

Recently Airbnb introduced new features and services in the app for facilitate the search of facilities and services on the app. In addition, it has brought novelties to make the travel safer and with the certainty of refunds in case of problems. All strategies to relaunch a sector hard hit by the pandemic.

But it seems that China is not one of the countries where Airbnb considers this recovery possible. There are no official confirmations yet, but it seems that from this summer for booking accommodation in China will require other services.