Airbnb Rises over Traditional Hotels in USVI

coro
13 May 2019 5:49am
Airbnb

Airbnb, the online Facebook-like room renting service, is surging in popularity and importance in the U.S. Virgin Islands, allowing more and different tourists to visit and putting money in the pockets of Virgin Islanders. And many of those renting out rooms and apartments give it high marks for enabling them to access a new source of income.

St. Thomas Airbnb bookings shot up more than 600 percent from 2017 to 2018 and as of March, Airbnb projected 2019 bookings would increase beyond that by 338 percent.

Airbnb even ranked St. Thomas its number one destination in 2018. St. Thomas has historically received the overwhelming bulk of tourism and still does. But St. Croix and St. John also saw big gains in Airbnb visits.

This explosive growth has come even as air arrivals dropped sharply in early 2018 after the storms of September 2017.

St. Croix has been eagerly trying to attract a new hotel for many years, offering tax breaks, unique access to casino gambling and anything else the government could think of. But to no avail.

Tourism Department heads have said more hotel rooms are needed to attract more seats on flights. But no one would build a hotel without knowing there would be visitors flying in to stay in the rooms.

Airbnb allows St. Croix in particular to sidestep that catch-22, making rooms available at no cost to any developer.

It’s not all about the business owners reaping the rewards of Airbnb – of merely making a living and making a profit. They are making a life. They are happy in their work, even as they work hard at growing their businesses. Each of them is genuinely concerned with the comfort and care of their guests. They look forward to the return of a guest or a recommendation bringing a new visitor to their guest apartments.

Airbnb is the best thing for travelers and the best thing for owners, Carlos said. “They make all the arrangements giving the traveler the area, price and amenities.”

Visitors check reviews from previous guests and make their decisions from that. Both the traveler and the owner must pass a background check. Travelers must have government identification and a social media account so they can be easily tracked. They do all of this taking a very small percentage from the owner.

As of August 2018 there were 1,430 Airbnb listings in the territory: 830 in St. Thomas, 350 in St. Croix and 250 in St. John, according to Department of Tourism budget testimony.

At the same time there were only around 1,800 hotel, timeshare and bed and breakfast rooms online – down from more than 4,500 before the storms of 2017. By that measure, Airbnb appears poised to overtake traditional hotels.

Overnight stays tell a different story, one of huge growth, but not quite so dramatic. Through the end of July or beginning of August 2018, 17,200 people stayed in Airbnb accommodations in the territory. St. Thomas received 10,200 visitors staying in Airbnb properties for 2018; St. John saw 2,200 Airbnb guests, and 4,800 people stayed in Airbnb locations on St. Croix. That amounts to just under 8 percent of all air arrivals from January through July of 2018.

The rise in Airbnb is a boon to the government’s finances as well as to V.I. property owners. In 2017, Airbnb signed a deal with Gov. Kenneth Mapp’s administration to automatically collect and remit the territory’s hotel occupancy tax from its V.I. rentals. And of course visitors spend money while they are here.

It remains to be seen if the rise in Airbnb will mean tougher times for traditional hotels. But for now, its explosive growth has helped bring in visitors in spite of a lack of hotel rooms, put money in government and homeowner hands and seems to be poised for yet more expansion.

Source: The St. Thomas Source

Back to top