What 12 Individuals Learned After One Year Of Living Anywhere On Airbnb

Key findings of the Live Anywhere program

To rightly understand and accommodate the requirements of long-term stays, Airbnb launched the Live Anywhere program last year with a group of 12 participants who were given a chance to live in some of the most amazing locations around the world in exchange for their honest and exhaustive opinions and suggestions. There were three key observations from the experiment:

• Tools such as wishlists help in designing multi-leg journeys

• Facilities such as large common spaces and fully-equipped kitchens add significant value to long-term stays

• An attentive host, access to the local community, and recommendations yield positive reviews and long-term trip experience

Additionally, when asked about their favorite memory from the Live Anywhere program, two of the participants, Lindsay and Anna from Maryland said: “Most of our time was spent on a large-scale cross-country road trip, where we fell in love with a number of US cities. In a few cities, we had the chance to share our stories with the local media, and in Tulsa, we even got a mayoral proclamation, where April 22 was declared Lindsey and Anna Day!”

Travel tips for living long-term on Airbnb

Some of the participants of the program were also asked to share their insightful tips for future guests who wish to live long-term on Airbnb, and this is what they had to say:

• “Be flexible. Plans will change all the time, make the best of every situation and don’t get stuck on a plan if it’s not meant to be. Stay open-minded and seize opportunities when they arise. Don’t book things too much in advance either.” – Will from France

• “Use wishlists! We used the wishlist feature as a parking lot for potential Airbnbs. Sometimes we’d get up to 15, 20, 25 different homes, and then would narrow it down to our top four or five listings.” – Ben & Peta from France and South Africa

• “Prioritize the Airbnb over everything else (including location). Unlike a holiday, you will spend a lot of time at home, which is what makes an Airbnb vs. hotel so helpful. When living like a nomad, it’s essential to have a comfortable home to return to at the end of the day of travel or working remotely.” – Steven from France

• “If you’re traveling with a group, opt for spaces where every person has their own room regardless of how comfortable you are with each other. Yet it’s also important to find a place where there are spaces for interaction, like big living rooms or balconies. Even just a small cozy corner where people can gather and exchange stories or simply do work together.” – Hendric from Singapore

Tips for Airbnb hosts to make their listings more hospitable

To help hosts improve and make their listings long-term friendly, Airbnb also asked participants to share their suggestions so they can make their rentals more hospitable. And, this is what some of them had to stay:

• “When booking a weekend or a shorter trip, we were happy to get a door code, make ourselves at home and not interact with the Host at all and just get on with our holiday. But when staying in places longer, we definitely craved more communication from Hosts and it made all the difference in helping us feel at home.” – Stephanie from Tennessee

• “I really appreciated Hosts that outfitted their Airbnbs for longer stays. Listings that actually had full kitchen equipment, ones that even provide things like detergent. It is really nice when you walk into an Airbnb and there’s those little extras that you need for long-term stays that you don’t necessarily have with you.” – Victoria from Russia

• “Show your guests around! One of my Hosts took me to her favorite places, cafes, and restaurants. Those places became my favorite places. At one of the cafes that I frequented, the owner would come out on occasion and greet me and say hello. That meant the world to me, because it made me feel like a local and was extremely kind. Those are the experiences that I think anyone wants when they travel, especially if they’re traveling long-term.” – Marquita from New York

Favorite Airbnb categories

Keeping in line with the company’s recent launch of Airbnb Categories, a few of the contestants listed their favorite features and categories:

• “We love the flexibility that the new site allows. Because we’ve spent the year traveling, we’ve been really flexible not only with time, but also with location. We always use the Flexible dates feature to make sure we’re seeing the best listings, even if it means changing our plans slightly. Category-wise, Amazing Pools are always a hit with Hays! We’ve been lucky enough to have pools at our homes in Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam!” – Stephanie from Tennessee

• “By far our favorite is the Design Category! Just magnificent properties pop up that weren’t as readily visible before. Next, was the Beaches Category because of the uniqueness of these Airbnb listings. And finally, the OMG! Category. Love having the option to have the system surface candidates that would not otherwise come our way.” – Ben & Peta from France and South Africa

Benefits of living long term on Airbnb

After the remote working trend took off during the pandemic, several organizations and working professionals continued with the freedom of living and working anywhere in the world. When asked about the benefits of living long-term on Airbnb, the participants shared:

• “On longer stays, personal connections were most important. For us, connection means feeling connected to the local community, wherever we are. One of the ways that we do this is going back to the same places, like a coffee shop, a place for breakfast, or a grocery to buy produce. We don’t try to see everything and we are really living in our neighborhood. People start to recognize us and we feel connected to the fiber of the local community.” – Ben & Peta from France and South Africa

• “I liked Hosts who tailored recommendations for longer stays, for instance practical basics like banking, post office or where to buy household supplies in the neighborhood – local perspectives you would only get by staying at an Airbnb.” – Hendric from Singapore

Challenges of living long term on Airbnb

Like every cloud has a silver lining, every positive aspect also comes with certain drawbacks or challenges.

• “It’s ‘hard’ to constantly adapt to a new city and a new apartment. And, with longer stays of 28 or more days most of the time we had a hard time canceling our stay if countries closed or flights were changed because of the strict cancellation policy.” – Jonathan from Canada

• “A common misconception people have about the nomadic lifestyle is that you are going to be on a perpetual holiday which is not the case if you have to work, because at first, you might be trying to live like a tourist almost full time, but sooner or later you have to accept that you need a certain routine and that you have to use your energy for your job. So, it’s not all just fun.” – Maria from Argentina

What does the future of long-term travel look like?

As Airbnb’s Live Anywhere program comes to a successful end, the participants share their future plans and thoughts on continuing to live the nomadic lifestyle.

Hendric from Singapore says, “Would love to! Considering the Philippines as there was still so much to explore in the region. Not to mention the vibrant nomadic community as well.”

Additionally, Colin and Meg from Malaysia and South Carolina share “We hope to be seasonal nomads after our year of living anywhere with Airbnb. We hope to make travel a significant part of our lives while having a home base in South Carolina. We’ve already got plane tickets booked to Banff, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Copenhagen and Berlin. This year has also taught us that my wife and I enjoy working together as travel content creators. We hope this could be our small business moving forward as well.”