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Here are some key learnings that marketers might want to keep in the back of their minds when travel comes back and the marketing battle heats up again.

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Branding can beat performance marketing in good times... and even more so in bad times
It is common industry knowledge that Airbnb chose from the early days to shun away from the traditional search marketing formula chosen by most of its industry peers. 

The poster child of the sharing economy took the path of building a strong brand that deeply connected with the desires and aspirations of travelers across the world.

This strategy allowed the company to take off like a rocket ship during the last decade, a buoyant period for the global travel industry. When travel collapsed with the pandemic outbreak, Airbnb was no different from the rest of the industry by hitting the brakes in sales and marketing spend to get into survival mode during the lockdown.

During the third quarter of 2020, with travel picking up again, Airbnb’s strong brand equity outshone the rest of the industry. Direct and unpaid traffic returned to 2019 levels, accounting for 93% of total traffic.

Marketing expenses in the quarter represented 9% of revenue vs. 26% in the same quarter of last year. Quarterly gross booking value finished down 17% year-over-year, significantly better than the overall industry annual trend.

Airbnb’s last quarter generated the highest ever EBITDA in the company’s history, as a result of the low marketing costs and strong revenue uptick.

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