Airbnb's home rental services in China will shut down starting July 30, but there is no sign of it ending, according to reports.
Airbnb said: “In this current epidemic, changes are normal, and the tourism industry has also ushered in changes. “
Airbnb will no longer offer accommodation reservations in China but will be focusing in developing new services which help people in China plan their travel oversea.
Airbnb started operations in China six years ago, where they have 25 million guests have booked stays there through their website. Residential bookings in China only accounted for just 1% of Airbnb's total bookings in recent years based on the company reports.
Airbnb faces stiff competition in China, where the pandemic has made its operations more complicated and expensive.
Airbnb: Demand for travel hindered by Covid-19 is growing
While most of the rest of the world has turned to live with Covid-19 together, China is still sticking to zero Covid-19 policy, imposing extreme control measures and movement restrictions in some cities, including Shanghai's economic hub movement restriction and also extreme control measures in Beijing, which damaged the country's economy.
Airbnb expecting their bookings to hit a new high record in the first quarter of the year as the epidemic restrictions ease and borders reopen, the company said in a recent earnings report, the travel demand is growing due to the impact of the pandemic.
Despite Omicron's surge and infection cases continuing to rise, Airbnb get a new quarterly record with more than 102 million of reservations in the first three months of the year, the company said in a revenue statement.
“Going forward, we see strong and continued underlying demand,” Airbnb said.
