Guillaume and Steven are two of 12 lucky winners who have been selected by Airbnb to live an experience like no other: a year of travel as part of a new program that the accommodation platform is experimenting with. They will take advantage of this program to combine work and vacation in various parts of the world. They will also share their experiences with the booking site in order to improve the service.
This week home rental platform Airbnb unveiled the 12 winners of its "Live Anywhere" program, designed to accommodate new trends in flexible and nomadic living. These 12 participants, who hail from the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, France, Argentina, Russia and the United Kingdom will be involved in contributing to the platform's innovations and improvement by sharing their experiences.
We spoke to two of the three French winners, a duo connected by 12 years of friendship: Guillaume, 31, and Steven, 30. The two friends met in prep school and have been friends ever since. For the past few months, Guillaume, working from Boston, and Steven, working from London, have been collaborating on a project combining work and travel. "We already had a more or less precise plan, but the fact that we were selected changes the project. It makes it a lot easier," explains Steven. "The world is opening up and things are moving quickly," Steven says. Well aware of these evolutions, Airbnb wants to adapt its services. According to figures released by the platform, the share of long stays increased by 10% in the first quarter of 2021 compared to 2019. Travelers are also booking more accommodations outside of major cities, and are particularly heading to rural areas.
One year of a "workation"
In September, the two will leave for Valencia in Spain, then will continue their journey in Greece and Malta. In October, they will head to Asia where a visit to Japan is highly anticipated. "The country is the centerpiece of the trip. Guillaume has been studying Japanese for 12 years and is fascinated by the culture," says Steven.
Although they are used to working from abroad, this will be Steven's first experience of true "nomadism." He will be working full time on the entrepreneurial project that links ecology and travel, while Guillaume will continue to work part of the time for the fintech company that employs him today. "I'm very excited to change the way I work, and to be able to very soon have an office right by the sea, for instance," Steven enthuses.
Steven has no worries about being his own boss and feels he can alternate between working and visiting. "I'm quite rigorous and I'm aware that we have one year to create something. We're going to put our hearts into it," he says.
The duo is already checking out the accommodations for their future destinations in order to meet their specific needs: two bedrooms and two offices. "It's like an apartment, it takes a while to find the perfect one," Steven exclaims. According to the platform, 11% of people who booked long-term stays in 2021 said they were embracing a nomadic lifestyle, and 74% of users surveyed in five countries expressed interest in a life that, once the pandemic is behind us, is not centered on where their employer is located.
This interview has been translated from French.
