Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment

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Impact of Covid-19 on Airbnb: evidence from

Vietnam

Nguyen Bang Nong & Van Hong Thi Ha

To cite this article: Nguyen Bang Nong & Van Hong Thi Ha (2021): Impact of Covid-19
on Airbnb: evidence from Vietnam, Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, DOI:
10.1080/20430795.2021.1894544

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/20430795.2021.1894544

Published online: 02 Mar 2021.

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JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE FINANCE & INVESTMENT
https://doi.org/10.1080/20430795.2021.1894544

Impact of Covid-19 on Airbnb: evidence from Vietnam

Nguyen Bang Nong and Van Hong Thi Ha
Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, Hanoi, Vietnam

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Airbnb is an accommodation service on smart apps. Airbnb was Received 12 January 2021
established in 2008 in the United States. In Vietnam, Airbnb Accepted 21 February 2021
appeared in 2015 with about one thousand listings. By the
KEYWORDS
beginning of 2020, this number had reached about 80 thousand Covid-19; tourism; home-
in the wake of the Covid-19 Pandemic. In Hanoi, the number of sharing; Airbnb; Vietnam
bookings increased from 94% in mid-January fell to 3% in mid-
April. In Ho Chi Minh City, on the rise of about 105% in mid-
January 2020 to 9, 6% in April. In Da Nang city, the business was
the worst, rising to 143.3% in January 2020, falling to 1%, and by
the end of August 2020, the rate of reservation guests will only
be 3.6%. Airbnb’s dire business performance is an indicator of
Vietnam’s tourism business, the real estate business, and many
accompanying people’s employment problems.

1. Introduction
Airbnb was founded in 2008 by Gebbia, Chesky, and Blecharczyk co-founded and has
headquartered in San Francisco (California, USA) (Airbnb 2020b). Airbnb (short for
Air Bed and Breakfast) is an intermediary business that aims to connect accommodation
tenants with those wishing to rent worldwide through technology applications or com-
puters with connected internet. Initially, Airbnb operated on the usual principle that
homeowners shared their room and house customers. Today, Airbnb is a means of
business, expanding services because customers, together with the host, can combine
experience activities designed by the homeowner. Payment between the tenant and the
lessor makes through a bank credit card (Visa or Master, for example) through
Airbnb, and will be charged a fee from both parties, 3% of the total booking amount
from the owner, and less than 14.2% for room tenants (Airbnb 2020b).
By taking advantage of the excess supply and technology, Airbnb has developed an
innovative way of connecting room-renters and those wishing to rent a property (Gut-
tentag 2015).
Creativity is connecting homeowners and renters are the strength that makes Airbnb
increasingly popular and growing at a dizzying rate. After more than ten years in exist-
ence, Airbnb has been present in more than 190 countries, is one of the most valuable
startups globally, and has a peak value of $ 38 billion U.S. Dollars rated similarly
(Figure 1). Some famous hotel brands such as Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide,

CONTACT Nguyen Bang Nong nguyennb.ioa@vass.gov.vn

© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 N. BANG NONG AND V. H. HA

Figure 1. Airbnb’s IPO valuation before going public (Unit: billion U.S. dollars). Source: Compiled by
the authors from www.statista.com.

Intercontinental Hotel Group, Wyndham Worldwide, and Accor Hotel Group do not
own any hotel rooms (Haywood et al. 2017; Truong 2017; Hartmans 2017).
By the end of 2020, right in the Covid-19 Pandemic, Airbnb was successfully listed on
the U.S. stock exchange, and the capitalization reached more than 100 billion USD
(Hussain and Franklin 2020).
As of 2020, Airbnb has more than 800 million tenants, 4 million hosts, and $ 110
billion in profits for hosts. Airbnb is currently accessible in 62 languages (including Viet-
namese) in more than 100,000 cities and more than 220 countries and territories. In 2019,
an average of more than 2 million people overnight in rooms booked through Airbnb
(Airbnb 2020b). In the Asia-Pacific region, Airbnb has contributed to the creation of
920,000 jobs in this region. Airbnb tenants spent $ 70.5 billion U.S. dollars between
2015 and 2019 (shopping, food, and travel). In 2019 alone, the figure was $ 20.7
billion. Also, the Airbnb community contributed more than $ 22.7 billion U.S. dollars
to the Asia-Pacific economy. According to calculations, for every 100 registered accom-
modation rentals on Airbnb in Asia-Pacific, 101 jobs will be supported in 2019 (Airbnb
2020a).
Airbnb has opened up opportunities in the accommodation rental market by expand-
ing into new customers and diversifying supply. For customers, Airbnb helps customers
save money and travel time by finding the right place. The rental price in Airbnb is always
lower than that of hotels and resorts, and the quality is equal or better (Guttentag 2015).
Airbnb also provides customers with opportunities to experience local culture and the
feeling of accommodation as home (Tussyadiah 2015). In essence, Airbnb creates a
new playground different from the hotel model. Traditional, Airbnb targets an entirely
different market segment, such as homestays, and young budget travelers (Guttentag
2015). Airbnb is very flexible in prices according to seasons, time of the week, and
month (Haywood et al. 2017).
Recently, Airbnb also launched an ‘experience’ service arranged by the owner for a
room, contributing to customer satisfaction (Lawler 2014). Airbnb promotes
 JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE FINANCE & INVESTMENT 3

competition for businesses, causing the hotel and restaurant industry to upgrade pro-
ducts to attract customers (Ghemawat 2020). Since then, Airbnb is seen as a cheaper
rental option, hotel discounts, and more tourists. Collaboration between Airbnb and des-
tination management organizations also presents many opportunities. As Airbnb became
a Visit Sweden partner, previously unknown hotel markets could reach more customers
(Millington 2017).
Research on Airbnb’s impact on traditional hospitality businesses has different per-
spectives. Airbnb opens up opportunities for the accommodation rental market, diver-
sifies the travel and resort industry, and promotes the real estate market’s
development. Hotel owners can fully use Airbnb as a platform to find more customers
during the low season. Instead of competing, hotels may choose to partner with
Airbnb to advertise and register rooms on the platform (Trang and Filimonau 2020).
Some other studies suggest that Airbnb helps hotels by expanding their markets to
new groups of customers and diversifying their supply (Heo 2016). Airbnb can access
active hotel areas ineffectiveness, thus attracting a broader customer base. For
example, in 2018, Airbnb launched a new high-end service – Airbnb Plus-qualified apart-
ments in central city areas to tap the traditional hotel market (Behan 2018). Since then,
Airbnb forces hotels to participate more strongly in price cuts at different times of the
year (Trang and Filimonau 2020), attracting more tourists and fostering competition,
driving the tourism industry. Hotel and restaurant schedules must upgrade products
to attract customers (Ghemawat 2002).
Some other studies suggest that Airbnb reduces hotel revenue. Airbnb has been
destroying the traditional hotel and tourism business model’s legal nature by putting cus-
tomers in the framework they created (Botsman and Rogers 2011). Research by Zervas
et al. showed that a 10% increase in a rental on Airbnb would reduce hotel revenue by
0.39% (Zervas, Proserpio, and Byers 2017).
Furthermore, functional managers cannot collect taxes or manage the number of tour-
ists. Guttentag (2015) shows that Airbnb does not compete with hotel businesses because
Airbnb targets an entirely different market segment, renting houses, mainly to young
tourists’ savings.
Based on the development of the home-sharing model, Airbnb has become the
largest accommodation provider globally, creating a new game in the context of a
growing global sharing economy (Guttentag et al. 2017; Wisesa, Adriansyah, and
Khalaf 2020). In Vietnam, from one thousand listings in 2015, Airbnb had about
80,000 listings until early 2020, right at the Covid-19 Pandemic outbreak. The
remarkable development of this shared economic model in Vietnam in a brief
period. Airbnb thrives in big cities like Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang, and
Quang Ninh.
Based on the development perspective of Airbnb, this article explores the impact of the
Covid-19 Pandemic on the development of Airbnb in Vietnam. The research question is:
will Covid-19 Pandemic erase the success of Airbnb in Vietnam? The International Mon-
etary Fund (IMF) considers Vietnam to be very successful against the Covid-19 Pan-
demic (Dabla-Norris, Gulde-Wolf, and Painchaud 2020) based on the views of the
Party and Government of Vietnam as ‘beating the pandemic like beating invaders’. So
what is behind its success? Does this success bring any disadvantages to the development
of Airbnb in Vietnam?
4 N. BANG NONG AND V. H. HA

This article’s data was collected by authors and team members in 2020 from a variety
of sources, including statistics from Statista and AirDNA; online statistics questionnaire
by Google Forms 100 Airbnb business owners in Vietnam; observing Airbnb groups on
Facebook (more than ten groups with hundreds of thousands of members); in-depth
interviews with ambassadors and hosts in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh; joining offline ses-
sions, joining business courses through Zoom and directly about Airbnb in Hanoi and
Ho Chi Minh City.

2. Airbnb’s growth in Vietnam

Vietnam has a rapidly growing tourism market in Southeast Asia (UNWTO 2017). In
2018, Vietnam became the third fastest-growing tourist destination globally with a
29% increase in tourist rate (Ravenelle 2020; Milton 2019). The number of inter-
national visitors to Vietnam in the last five years has increased by 2.2 times, from
7.9 million in 2015 to over 18 million in 2019 (Vietnam General Statistics Office
2020; Nguyen and Phi 2019). The Airbnb scholarship model meets the number of
foreign tourists who want to experience Vietnamese cultural identity in modernity.
The majority of foreign visitors use Airbnb services. Even young Vietnamese people
like to join the trend of the sharing economy. These two customer streams are
quickly adapting to smart technology, sharing products, self-sufficient travel at afford-
able prices, and the direction of virtual living (sống ảo), check-in, and selfie photogra-
phy at famous landmarks in Vietnam.
The Airbnb model appeared in 2015 with a starting point of more than one thousand
listings. As of January 2019, Airbnb has 40,804 listings. In early 2020, right at the begin-
ning of the Covid-19 Pandemic, the listing number on Airbnb sometimes reached over
80,000, then gradually decreased due to aftershocks of the Pandemic (Figure 2). In an
AirDNA report on Vietnamese homestays, the number of listing on Airbnb increased
to 452% over two years, 2018–2019, far exceeding the world’s average growth of 140%
(Milton 2019). Big cities like Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang, Nha Trang, Da Lat,
and Quang Ninh places with the most listing. Ho Chinh Minh City warfare was up to
37% of the total listing on Airbnb throughout Vietnam (Milton 2019).
Vietnam has more than 18,000 homeowners on Airbnb, and 70% of them are renting
more than one property. The average monthly turnover of homeowners in Ho Chi Minh

Figure 2. Change in Airbnb active properties due to the Covid-19 Pandemic in selected countries
worldwide from January to March 2020 (in thousands). Source: compiled by the authors from
www.AirDNA.co.
 JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE FINANCE & INVESTMENT 5

City is over 11 million VND during the high season, and in Hanoi, it is nearly seven
million VND. Although compared to Thailand, the scale of Airbnb operations in
Vietnam is still very small (in Thailand, there are about 61,400 registered accommo-
dation facilities), the growth rate in Vietnam is often that of Thailand (Sritama 2018).
The number of accommodation rental registrations in 2017 in Da Nang increased to
255% and in Hanoi by 212% (Lane 2017; Trang and Filimonau 2020).
According to the latest report from market research firm AirDNA, the homestay
business in Vietnam grew five times in terms of the number of accommodation supplies
in the past year, much higher than the traditional hotel industry that only grew 40%
growth in supply (Anh 2019). The number of bookings is mainly international visitors,
with 84% (the five largest international visitors are from Singapore, Australia, Korea, the
United States, and Hong Kong). Domestic visitors only account for 16% (mainly from 3
big cities, Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City) (My My 2019). The cities with the
most considerable revenue from Airbnb such as Ho Chi Minh City (41.6 million U.S.
dollars), Da Nang (19.5 million U.S. dollars), Hanoi (13.3 million USD), Khanh Hoa
(7.6 million U.S. dollars) (Airbnb 2020a).
The most popular forms of business on Airbnb in Vietnam today include apartments
and dormitories, full house (townhouses), hotel rooms, villas and resorts, private room in
a building, company, and office, and service building (the most premium and pro-
fessional type of business on Airbnb).
Our survey shows that Airbnb has created a job ecosystem such as cleaning services
(accounting for 72% of the survey sample), laundry (53%), security (17%), and photogra-
phy for advertising (48%). The Airbnb model has erased the traditional residency con-
ception and boundary. For example, in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as ‘Eating
in the District 5, sleeping in the District 3, lavishing in the District 1, fighting in the Dis-
trict 4’. Nowadays, District 2 and District 7 of Ho Chi Minh City have become places that
attract more visitors from Airbnb and luxury foreigners.
The overheated development of Airbnb in Vietnam over the past five years has shown
that Airbnb has gradually become a vibrant and fiercely competitive business environ-
ment with strategic plans to bring listings to the top of the market. Tens of thousands
of listings exist, increasing viewership by pricing policies, customer interaction,
product reviews, and continually updating images. Besides, the business owner must con-
tinuously invest capital in changing the residence’s appearance, update new trends, and
capture the customer’s view. The total capital with the average value of an investment in a
place has reached over 138,644 US dollars for a business owner on Airbnb. The online
world comes to life and has the data customers (including current and potential
Airbnb tourists and businesses), who set the game rules and gets the game.
Although Airbnb has grown in recent times; However, Airbnb does not have an
official office in Vietnam; all activities are done via the website and mobile applications.
Currently, the Airbnb team that manages the hosts in Vietnam is in Singapore.

3. The global picture of Airbnb during the Covid-19 pandemic

By 2020, the Covid-19 Pandemic affected almost all industries but was hit hardest by
tourism and accommodation. According to CNBC and Forbes, Airbnb’s value in
March 2017 was 31 billion USD. By the end of April 2020, it was only 18 billion USD
6 N. BANG NONG AND V. H. HA

(Trainer 2020). In early May 2020, Airbnb had to lay off 1900 employees out of its 7500
employees, or 25%. CEO Brian Chesky told his staff that the first three-month revenue of
2020 was only half the same period in 2019. In the first three months of 2020, tourists
registering to stay on Airbnb was bleak, with extremely negative growth, sometimes
up to 95%.
According to the data of the short-term room rental market AirDNA, the number of
visitors booked through Airbnb decreased by 33–36% (while hotels decreased by 17.5%)
(The gioi & Viet Nam 2020). Europe’s major cities have lost millions of tourists, and the
epidemic is uncertain when it will be better. Room rental owners on the Airbnb network
were also directly affected. In Athens (Greece), the number of tenants renting a flat or
small house has decreased by 100% at least within the first three months of April 2020
(Thao 2020). According to some experts and researchers, the Covid-19 Epidemic
shook Airbnb’s business model and had an unexpected effect through the real estate
market regulation. Homeowners in some capitals are slowly moving to ‘traditional’
rental through real estate companies, and the terms of the lease are also longer, at
least a few weeks or a month or so. shift to long-term lease contracts to limit risks
through choosing a safer business model (Thao 2020).
AirDNA’s statistical research shows that in the United States, before the outbreak of
the Covid-19 Pandemic, the listing number (residence: room, house) was over 1.1 million
when the Pandemic broke out. The listing number has been reduced to only about 1
million, decreasing by nearly 100 thousand listings. In France, the number of properties
present on Airbnb has also declined to 28,000 listings (Figure 2).
Several other countries in Southeast Asia have also been hit hard by the Covid-19 Pan-
demic, where people are restricted from traveling between countries and within
countries. The number of listing remaining in Cambodia is only about 6000, Indonesia
has 68,000, and Singapore is even lower, only about 6000 (Figure 3). The decline in
Southeast Asia is parallel with the situation of the Covid-19 epidemic, which is taking
place badly in these countries.
So far, Airbnb’s business is recovering from the beginning of May 2020. This recov-
ery occurs as urban residents take advantage of their time working remotely to rent
vacation rooms close to home – or ‘on-site travel’ (Hao 2020). As of 8 July Airbnb
said it had one million booking nights, and this was the first time Airbnb had hit
that level since early March (The gioi & Viet Nam 2020). On 19 August 2020,
Airbnb announced that it had filed for an initial public offering. Even so, Airbnb
still has to convince investors of the ability to grow and profit in a new era when
travel is limited and when forms of travel such as international vacations, corporate
travel. People and activities related to significant events organizations are unlikely
to return soon (Griffith 2020). In their study, Qiu et al. (2020) argue that tourists
willing to pay (WTP) more to have a chance to travel to Hongkong in the time of
the Covid-19 Pandemic.

4. The impact of the Covid-19 epidemic on Airbnb’s business in Vietnam

The Covid-19 Pandemic from the end of 2019–2020 has severely affected the tourism and
accommodation industry and Vietnam. As of the last day of 2020, Vietnam had 1,451
cases of infection, 1318 instances of cure, and 35 deaths.
 JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE FINANCE & INVESTMENT 7

Figure 3. Comparison of the effect of Covid-19 on the depletion of listing Airbnb in Southeast Asia.
Source: compiled by the authors from www.AirDNA.co.

From 22 January to 5 March 2020, all cases are from China in the first phase. During
this period, Vietnam had eight patients, and eight patients were transmitted to the
community.
In the second phase 2 of the Covid-19 Pandemic, from 6 March to 22 July 2020, infec-
tion sources are more common, from Europe, America, and Asia. During this period,
Vietnam had 303 cases and 96 cases spreading out into the community.
In the third phase, from July 23 to 11 December 2020, Vietnam has 976 cases, of which
557 cases spread to the community. During this period, Vietnam could not identify the
source of infection. As a result, when the patients became very severe and multiple
underlying diseases (cancer, kidney failure, and diabetes), up to 35 deaths were reported.
The ends are mostly from Da Nang and have a significant impact on tourism activities in
this city and the whole country; for the first time, Vietnam has only died of Covid-19
8 N. BANG NONG AND V. H. HA

Pandemic (Tran 2020). This third phase seriously affects the economic situation, tourism
and profoundly reduces visitors’ number using Airbnb services in Vietnam, and in Da
Nang for particular.
During the three phases of preventing and combating the Covid-19 Pandemic,
Vietnam thoroughly implemented measures, such as social stretching, minimizing
people’s concentration, stopping all activities of sports, culture, and entertainment in
public places, suspend the operation of service businesses (including tourism), limit
the movement of people between localities, strictly control entry from international
(Prime Minister of Vietnam 2020a, and 2020b).
The Covid-19 Pandemic prevention and control result is that Vietnam’s GDP growth
is only 2.91% compared to 7.02% in 2019. Vietnam’s GDP growth is the best globally;
however, many sectors were still adversely affected, such as the 59.5% decrease in
tourism, food, and accommodation services, down 13% compared to 2019 (Vietnam
General Statistics Office 2020).
During the fever of the Airbnb business in Vietnam, the outbreak of the Covid-19
Pandemic did not affect first, when the listing number reached more than 80 units,
and gradually declined to 57,000 units until June 2020 (Figure 4).
Because of Hanoi’s disease’s prolonged and robust outbreak, the number of bookings
increased from 94% in mid-January down to 3% in mid-April. With different epidemics,
booking rates grew again, up to 51.2% in June 2020, but fell back to 13.1% in August 2020
(See Figure 5).
Ho Chi Minh City’s situation was the same, on the rise from around 105% in mid-
January 2020 to 9.6% in April as Vietnam imposed social gap measures. However,
from May to early August, there are signs of growth again, but only reached the
highest level of 43.8% in June. By mid-August, due to the new Covid-19 wave in
Vietnam, the set room was reduced by 25% (See Figure 5).
In Da Nang city, in the increase to 143.3% in January 2020; From 28 July to 4 Septem-
ber 2020, in the crisis of the epidemic, growth was only 1%, and by the end of August
2020, the rate of reservation guests was also around 3.6% (See Figure 5). It can be said
that the Airbnb business situation in Da Nang is the worst, compared to many other
cities in Vietnam, the result of poor disease control, many deaths due to disease.
The team’s survey also showed that more than 55% of hosts said that the Airbnb
business in Vietnam made them lose money, only about 28% said that they had low
profits, compared to 2019, the profit rate is 79% (Figures 6 and 7).

Figure 4. Number of properties listing on Airbnb in Vietnam in 2020. Source: compiled by the authors
from www.AirDNA.co.
 JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE FINANCE & INVESTMENT 9

Figure 5. Comparison of Airbnb services in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Nang during the Covid-19
Pandemic. Source: compiled by the authors from www.statista.com.

In particular, the booking rate in 2020 of the hosts reaching over 70% is only 8% (the
best profit rate). The rest, 57% of the hosts, had a booking rate only below 20%. This
booking rate was lower than in 2019, when the full of guests over 70%. 64% of the
10 N. BANG NONG AND V. H. HA

Figure 6. Airbnb business activities during Covid-19 Pandemic. Source: compiled by the authors from
the research project.

Figure 7. Airbnb business activities in the year 2019. Source: compiled by the authors from the
research project.

respondents and up to 17% of business people, the rate of booking visitors is below 40%
(Figures 8 and 9).
In in-depth interviews, hosts all said that Covid-19 Pandemic had a profound impact
on their revenue. The number of international visitors is not much, and only the number
of domestic tourists remains. Airbnb’s Vietnam situation is the general picture of tourism
and the view of the real estate business and the economy in Vietnam in general when
more people are investing in apartments to do Airbnb business. On average, a business
owner must continuously invest more than $138,664 US dollars for an apartment to
stimulate demand and increase customer views. In 2019, the average income reached
nearly $64 thousand U.S. Dollars/one year. However, revenue in 2020 for all hosts will
decrease by more than 60%. The danger of economic and social security crisis can
happen at any time when the Vietnamese government’s support packages are not yet
highly effective. In a later interview, a host said, ‘Previously, I had five apartments for
rent, now because Covid-19 has to sell down apartments, only one is left’. (In-depth
interview with L.A.).
While many hosts have to sell off their assets to survive the Covid-19 storm, some
other hosts diversify their business as a strategy to overcome the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Some hosts list Airbnb and many other rental OTA (Online Travel Agency) platforms
 JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE FINANCE & INVESTMENT 11

Figure 8. Booking rate in the year 2020 during Covid-19 Pandemic. Source: compiled by the authors
from the research project.

Figure 9. Booking rate in the year 2019. Source: compiled by the authors from the research project.

such as Agoda and Booking.com. In our study, more than 63% of host owners advertised
their products on these platforms. They also started joining many groups and forums on
Facebook to promote and find more domestic visitors. Currently, Vietnam has many
famous groups about Airbnb in Vietnam with tens of thousands of members such as
Airbnb Hosts in Saigon-Vietnam (65,600 members), Vietnam Airbnb Hosts Community
(18,800 members), Homestay-Airbnb Hosts in Hanoi (25,800 members), and Host com-
munity Da Nang-Hoi An (12,300 members).
The process of socially simplified and local isolation in some areas, districts, and pro-
vinces, constrains people’s psychology, and the need to travel to relieve psychology are
opportunities for host owners. Also, some hosts started selling more products online,
like selling cosmetics. Some other hosts are also involved in producing or selling hand
sanitizer against Covid-19 Pandemic.

5. Conclusion
The shared economic model, typically Airbnb, still had its charisma during the Covid-19
Pandemic. So far, the preventive Covid-19 vaccine is available, and people have new
hopes: the post-Covid-19 social reconstruction process.
12 N. BANG NONG AND V. H. HA

The past Covid-19 Pandemic has left enormous losses to the newly established sharing
economy over the past ten years, Airbnb. Airbnb’s business trend in Vietnam also
suffered significant losses, like many other countries in the world. In particular, many
new household enterprises establish in recent years to catch trends in economic develop-
ment when Vietnam integrated the global deeply (Ha and Bui 2020).
In addition to the visible effects of a considerable decline in Airbnb users’ number, the
indirect impact is also huge: employment problems, business borrowing, and the real
estate business environment.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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