Airbnb CEO says CDC lifting mask mandate is a ‘game changer’ event

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new mask guidelines on Thursday and said that fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks indoors or outdoors, even in crowded spaces.

Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB) CEO Brian Chesky discussed on FOX Business how these mandates will impact the travel industry.

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Chesky described the new guidelines as a ‘game changer’.

Travel has been recovering as more and more people are getting vaccinated. 

According to a survey conducted by the company which asked the participants about the out of home activity that they miss the most, the majority of the answers centered around travel. Americans have record savings and such mandates coupled with the pent-up demand for travel should be good for the company.

Airbnb reported earnings on Thursday for the first quarter of fiscal year 2021. The company reported revenues of $886.9 million, vs. $714.4 million as expected by analysts. The revenues increased 5% from the same quarter last year. Airbnb went public through an IPO in December. 

“The two trends I do think are going to invert are we are going to see a recovery of urban travel and a recovery of cross border,” Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said on a conference call with analysts. “This has been our bread and butter before the pandemic, and I think those are significant tailwinds for us.”

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According to Chesky, one of the most economic ways to travel is to not do many short trips to go back and forth for shorter trips. Instead what people can do is stay longer for a month and save on transportation costs.

Longer stays accounted for a quarter of the company’s bookings in the last quarter.