🍕 We are staying in Italy for five months - part of the Airbnb trend

On May 4 our son Teddy was born. That is Star Wars Day, so every birthday I get to say: I am your father!

Since my wife is on maternity leave and I can work from everywhere I have an internet connection, we saw the chance to skip the long and dark Swedish winter.

Thanks to the European Union it's easy to go and live anywhere you'd like in any of the 27 member states. And thanks to Airbnb it is much easier now than just a few years ago to find a place to stay.

We aimed for southern Italy and found a nice little house in Valle d'Itria, with an experienced Airbnb host that even installed an EV charger for our car. In November we drove down there through Europe and are staying here until April.

New Airbnb trend: Longer stays away from home

Little did we know we were part of a strong trend. On Airbnb's latest earnings call, CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky said this:

"...guests are not just traveling Airbnb, they're now living on Airbnb."

One in five Airbnb nights were for a month or more. In the past year 175,000 people stayed for three months or longer.

"Right now, I'm doing this call from Airbnb in Miami. And I'll be staying in a different town or city every couple of weeks. I've always wanted to do this. But before the pandemic, I had to be in office every day," Chesky said.

Go for it!

If you have the opportunity, I can really recommend it.

Staying this long in a new country adds spice to our life. We learn a little Italian and get to know the upsides (the food, weather and how they rave about our son) and downsides (the roads and the traffic) of life in Italy.

Almost every weekend we take short trips and are constantly amazed by the long rich history and beauty of every town.

Mathias Sundin
Co-founder & CEO of Warp News
Co-founder & Executive Chairman, Warp Institute