New data from Airbnb placed Wagga as the most in-demand Australian location for bookings, but a local ‘superhost’ had a different perspective.
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Wagga saw a 289 per cent increase from bookings made in 2018 compared to the previous year.
Airbnb’s country manager Sam McDonagh argued the company wasn't surprised by the data and said that many are beginning to consider travelling to regional towns due to the range of accommodation options available.
“What we’re seeing is a global phenomenon where people are travelling deeper to get a local experience,” Mr McDonagh said.
“The way people are travelling has also changed, technology allows Airbnb to be at the forefront of that.
“We’ve captured our results and information through results based on bookings and also wish-list properties and people are visiting places not just for their main tourism attractions but because of the great Airbnbs available.”
Mr McDonagh compared the findings in Wagga to global locations like Kaikoura, New Zealand, which topped the NZ list.
“The data is taken from both the number of bookings and the increase of properties and more people are visiting Wagga for the university, the Civic Theatre and for visiting family,” he said.
However Glen Oakman, a local Airbnb ‘superhost’ with nine properties in Wagga and two in Beechworth, Victoria, said this data does not add up.
“I’ve got a different view on the figures with Airbnb and I’ve been doing accommodations through the platform for just over three years and I haven’t seen any increase in bookings,” superhost Glen Oakman said.
“What I’m seeing is more properties coming to the Airbnb platform in Wagga, because when I started there were probably about 40 properties and now there are 154 listings on Airbnb.
“So with more properties there’s obviously more opportunities for people to stay and that’s where they’re drawing their figures from.
“A 300 per cent increase in bookings over a 12 month period doesn’t translate back to everybody getting more bookings.”
Mr Oakman said there’s “a race to the bottom” with many people discounting their properties to increase bookings.
“I had a look online this morning for mid-January to stay in Wagga for two people, I can book a whole apartment for $75, which is less than what I would pay in a hotel,” he said.
“There’s no way that can be profitable, they’re better off renting a property out full-time back on the normal rental market.
“Then I position myself with better properties, like the penthouse here, people are prepared to pay more money to stay at a nicer property and if you can do that, you can stay away from the need to discount rates.”
The Airbnb superhost said Wagga is mainly attracting professionals or family visitors as opposed to tourists.
“I’m not seeing this push for regional areas; the guests that I have staying are either here for short-term work, university opportunities or here for family reasons, like Kapooka and RAAF Base march outs,” he said.
“I’m not seeing tourism people coming through Wagga and this sort of makes sense because it’s not exactly a tourist destination and we haven’t positioned ourselves as one.”
Despite Wagga’s Airbnb market becoming saturated, Mr Oakman said he has no plans to change.
“Airbnb is working quite well for me, I have about an 80 per cent occupancy rate all year and that hasn’t changed,” he said.
“It will be interesting going forward and seeing how properties change.”
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