Strange Bedfellows? Airbnb Partners with São Paulo Hotel Association

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Airbnb and hotels have always maintained a tense relationship. The shared hosting platform, which allows ordinary people to offer houses and rooms to guests, has impacted the hotel sector worldwide.

Since its inception 12 years ago, the California company has faced countless measures, often fomented by hotels, to govern and hinder its expansion. With the advent of the pandemic, hotels and hospitality platforms have also suffered from the collapse of tourism. Now both Airbnb and the hotel industry have realized that they need to unite to overcome this crisis – at least in São Paulo.

Airbnb has just announced a partnership with the São Paulo section of the Brazilian Hotel Industry Association (ABIH-SP) to boost tourism in the region, through a memorandum of understanding. The goal is to foster business between the parties, share strategic information, and develop tourist attractions.

The agreement includes an educational program to expand responsible tourism awareness and practices, the promotion of São Paulo’s tourist destinations through digital resources, and the adoption of the best safety practices.

“When the pandemic came, this partnership made great sense. We need to unite,” says Flávia Matos, Airbnb’s director of institutional and governmental relations for Latin America. “The world has changed and the technology is there. We need to be at their side to recover tourism in Brazil together,” says Ricardo Roman Jr., president of ABIH-SP.

Win-win situation

Small independent hotels and inns were already looking for the Airbnb platform as a means to extend their reach. Digital tourism agencies and global hotel platforms such as Booking.com, Expedia, and Take-off, which typically offered only hotel rooms, also began to list apartments and houses for the season. “In other words, it’s all one thing. We, independent hoteliers need to have Airbnb on our side,” says Roman.

As well as expanding the accommodation options, Airbnb also offers another service for small hotels and inns: ‘Experiências’ (‘Experiences’). Its website allows the scheduling of buggy trips, hiking trails, gastronomic events, and guided tours, offered by local entrepreneurs.

Now, hotels may also register services that can be offered to guests on their platform and earn a commission for the sales. “It ends the concierge problem, which small hotels don’t have, and has the map printed with the main attractions”, says the association’s president.

The digital platform has signed partnerships with governments and tourism departments worldwide and launched the ‘Portal da Cidade’ (‘City Portal’), a tool for direct connection with governments to report data and news related to the tourism sector.

Besides São Paulo, Airbnb has partnered with the tourist destination town of Porto Seguro, Bahia, to train local entrepreneurs to sell experiences through the platform. “We share data to encourage the professionalization and better planning of tourism,” says Matos.

In 2019, Airbnb produced a direct economic impact of R$10.5 billion (US$2 billion) in Brazil considering the whole chain surrounding tourism, such as local trade and restaurants, in addition to accommodation.

More local trips

The state of São Paulo is essential for tourism in Brazil and Latin America. The travel and tourism sector generated R$551.5 billion in Brazil in 2019, according to data from the WTTC (World Travel and Tourism Council). The state of São Paulo alone accounted for some 40 percent of all companies’ turnover in the sector in Brazil.

According to IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), tourism activities in the state increased by 5.3 percent in 2019, while in Brazil they increased by 2.5 percent. Furthermore, the state is responsible for representing 50 percent of tourists from all over the country.

Quarantine has changed the types of trips taken. They became more local and isolated, according to Airbnb, with car travels of up to 300 km away from urban centers.

Guests seek houses in the countryside and in smaller beach towns, as retreats away from the large cities and with good infrastructure, such as internet connection, to combine family vacations and home-office work. Destinations until recently not considered touristic, such as the cities of São José dos Campos and Sorocaba, are now in high demand.

Therefore, the partnership announced yesterday intends to expand the state as a broader tourist destination. “São Paulo is not only Campos do Jordão and Guarujá, it holds many little known locations with nature, mountains, beach, and other attractions,” says Matos. Destinations such as Petar, Vale do Ribeira, Serra da Mantiqueira and the region of Cananeia are among the destinations to be explored.

Source: Exame