Launched in a small apartment in San Francisco in 2008 by two roommates, Airbnb is an online home-sharing platform, which lets hosts rent out entire properties or rooms in their properties to guests. Over the last 10 years, Airbnb has become a global hospitality giant, offered at more than 81,000 cities in 191 countries. Since its launch in Georgia, Airbnb offerings have spread like wildfire. As of May, 2019, there were 14,438 active listings in Tbilisi - a 7,213% increase from the same period three years ago. A sudden surge in supply has not however been accompanied by the same speedy increase in demand. In the first quarter of 2019, for every booked property in Tbilisi, two other available ones remain un-booked. Georgian tourism is thriving, with the number of international visitor trips having surpassed 7 million in 2018 and projected to increase to 7.5 million by the end of 2019. Demand on Airbnb properties as measured by the ratio of booked properties over the total number of active listings (referred to in this report as “demand rate”) has been inching upwards, albeit slowly. This report reviews the current state of the Airbnb submarket and its long- and short-term prospects and potential. Data has been obtained from AirDNA, a platform that provides aggregate data on demand and performance indicators or Airbnb. The scope is geographically limited to Tbilisi, covering a 35-month period between June 2016 and May 2019.

Looking Ahead

• Entry of Airbnb Plus and Airbnb Experience on the Georgian market – supported by both infrastructure and the potential experiential offerings
• Increasing number of luxury listings, as Airbnb is starting to be seen as a legitimate, profitable business
• Potential of Airbnb to tap into business tourism
• Threat of regulation
• Threat to the local communities; threat of the “revolving door of strangers”
• Benefits of Trending: rising recognition of Georgian cities on the world stage

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