Indian women entrepreneurs, who have associated with AirBnB, made approximately Rs 93,800 each in the last year, which led to total income of Rs 74 crore in 2018 by women hosts. Airbnb said that more than half of the home hosts working with the online bed and breakfast accommodation service are women.
“In India, Airbnb has seen a whopping 32.53% increase in women hosts between 2018 and 2019,” Airbnb said in a statement. It also said that most number of the Indian hosts comprise Goan women, followed by Mumbai and Bangalore.
AirBnB’s India program called Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) for rural Indian women also helped in women earning close to US$15,000 (over Rs 10 lakh) each by hosting over 500 guests from across Asia, USA and Europe, the company said. Currently, 2 million women are self-employed under Airbnb’s initiative, it added.
The company had conducted a session for the upcoming Women’s day inviting women entrepreneurs Dia Mirza, UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador and House of Masaba fame Masaba Gupta who expressed their love for travelling. Along with them, several women who have worked with Airbnb also shared their stories.
In India, Airbnb faces competition from Treebo and Ritesh Agarwal’s OYO. Meanwhile, India’s own hospitality brand OYO had earlier said that for OYO, Airbnb could actually be a potential partner.
“There are three main components to the OYO home business model… Airbnb is only the first of these three — a successful platform that lets hosts lists their homes and guests discover and book them,” Kavikrut, OYO’s chief growth officer, had told Financial Express Online.
Previously, Airbnb in February 2019 had said that India is one of the fastest-growing emerging markets for the company and it unveiled its ‘Plus Homes’ range in India.
Airbnb is an accommodation aggregator that offers over 5 million stay choices to its consumers. Currently, Airbnb is spread in 81,000 cities and 191 countries.