Airbnb CEO: Travel experiencing a boom, 'we're living through a revolution of how we live and work'

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky joined "The Claman Countdown" Friday to discuss the post-pandemic resurgence of the travel industry and how the reopening of U.S. borders is impacting the sector.

BRIAN CHESKY: The world has changed. The pandemic turned the world upside down. I think one of the things that happened is we are living through a revolution in how we live and work. For many people, they used to be tethered to a city because they had to go to an office. Now because more and more companies, at least for office workers, have more flexible policies. Many people say, ‘well, if I don’t have to go back to the office, I have more flexibility. I have flexibility on where I travel, when I travel, and I can go away for longer, because I don’t have to go back to the office.’ Because of this, what we’re seeing is 20% of our business by room nights are stays for a month or longer. This is an entirely new segment that’s emerged. It’s really accelerating. Nearly half of our business is staying longer than a week. The other side of this is borders are now reopening. President Biden said on October 15 that borders are reopening on November 8th. The week after he said that we saw a 44% increase in bookings cross-border coming to the United States. You’re seeing the return of old travel, plus new travel converging, and that’s what you’re seeing as far as a bump. 

WATCH FULL INTERVIEW HERE: