Hotel giants such as Wyndham, Marriott, IHG and Accor have been racing for years to build hotels in Brazil – but this week, we learned that rental tech company Airbnb has allegedly “become Brazil’s largest hospitality company.”
That’s according to Chip Conley, the creator of the boutique hotel chain Joie de Vivre who is now Airbnb’s Head of Global Hospitality & Strategy.
Conley sent out the Tweet shown above yesterday, as Brazil swells with soccer jersey-class fans for FIFA World Cup games between June 12 and July 13.
Last week, the San Francisco Business Times (coincidentally, where I worked as a young reporter) ran a story pointing out that Airbnb had spent two years preparing for the event. During the period, Airbnb listings in Brazil rose to 35,000 from about 3,000, the story says.
“It is by far the biggest event for us,” Christian Gessner, general director for Airbnb Brazil told the Business Times.
In Rio de Janeiro, Airbnb’s listings grew to 17,000 from about 800 with about four beds each, he said. More than 11,000 of those listings were added in the past year. He expects the growth to continue as Rio preps for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Readers: Have you tried Airbnb yet? Share your experience!
