Tess Pawlisch, right, has been living nomadically in Airbnbs in Tulum, Mexico since October.
Courtesy of Tess Pawlisch
Tess Pawlisch has worked in San Francisco for the past four years.
This year, however, Pawlisch has been writing business emails, holding team meetings, and taking customer calls from rooftops, hammocks, and beaches in Tulum, Mexico.
“I decided to do something new and went to Tulum, one of the few places that are really open right now, but still very nice,” said Pawlisch, a communications professional. “After a pandemic and so long in San Francisco, I just wanted something that was simple and beautiful.”
Pawlisch is part of a wave of professionals who have left their homes for a nomadic lifestyle and are using their companies’ decisions to support remote working across Covid-19. Many of these professionals have left their hometowns and are now jumping from Airbnb to Airbnb.
“These jobs can be exhausting at times, but at least when the sky is blue and 80 degrees,” said Pawlisch.
This growing lifestyle trend comes at a perfect time for Airbnb, which went public on Thursday. Airbnb shares quickly surged to more than double their market price of $ 68. Airbnb shares closed at $ 139.25 on Friday, giving the company a market value of $ 83.2 billion on a non-diluted basis. It’s now worth almost as much as $ 85.6 billion in online travel and more than many hotel chains like Marriott with a market cap of more than $ 41.7 billion.
Although the company’s revenue declined 19% in the last quarter from the year-ago quarter as the pandemic hit the travel industry, the company rebounded much faster than its peers as city dwellers fled their disused cities for more rural retreats. The recovery began within two months of the pandemic, the company said in its prospectus.
“Make life exciting again”
Trey Ditto never thought he was leaving his Brooklyn apartment, but when the pandemic forced everyone to quarantine, he shared a job with his home-based wife and their two-year-old. Almost immediately, the couple found an Airbnb in New York State that was close to the city but gave them plenty of room for everyone.
“We couldn’t possibly both work and raise a kid in an apartment in New York and not be able to walk or enjoy the outdoors,” said Ditto, who works in communications. “We were lucky enough to find a house that met our size requirements and was far enough from New York that we felt removed from madness, but close enough to New York that I could drive back.”
When it became clear the coronavirus wasn’t going to go away anytime soon, Ditto and his wife moved to another Airbnb in Texas in September to be close to the family for the rest of 2020.
“If you’d told me earlier this year that I was hopping around the country in other people’s homes, I would have laughed at you,” said Ditto, who had previously lived in New York for 13 years.
Aishwarya Vardhana decided she wanted to leave San Francisco after living locked in a small apartment with relatives for the first three months of quarantine. Vardhana got tired of the monotony and missed the excitement of seeing friends or going to parties and concerts in town. She and her friends decided to move to Airbnbs near national parks where they could hike and explore.
“Being locked in San Francisco was claustrophobic,” Vardhana said. Traveling to national parks and staying with Airbnbs “really meant making life exciting and energetic again.”
Vardhana was accompanied on her trip by her friend Anika Raghuvanshi, who said she no longer felt tied to a specific location after her company announced it would prioritize remote working. Vardhana and Raghuvanshi stayed with friends at Airbnbs in Montana, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming.
“It was really exciting to see and experience more of the world,” said Raghuvanshi. “That was the catalyst for me.”
Leona Marlene and her boyfriend decided to sell all of their belongings and leave their San Francisco apartment in September to live nomadically in Airbnb rentals.
Courtesy of Leona Marlene
Leona Marlene and her partner are nomadic after going on a road trip with the family in the summer. The couple loved the experience and realized they could actually save money on rent if they left San Francisco and stayed with Airbnbs, some of which offer significant discounts to people who book for months, Marlene said.
They listed everything they owned on the Facebook marketplace and sold everything within a week. Since then, Marlene and her boyfriend have been with Airbnbs in Austin and Indianapolis.
“After rent, utilities, all of our groceries and belongings, we spend more than $ 4,500 a month and can’t even experience the benefits of living in the city,” said Marlene, who documents her nomadic life on YouTube. “There’s never been a better time to do something like this.”
The biggest problem: unreliable WiFi
Switching between Airbnbs isn’t always easy.
Emily Buckley, for example, used Airbnb in 2020 to stay with her boyfriend in Kansas City, Denver, Austin, New Orleans and Atlanta, among others. She has enjoyed the freedom of the nomadic lifestyle, especially not knowing where to go next.
But the couple encountered some problems along the way. At one point, Buckley and her boyfriend came to an Airbnb that was drastically smaller than expected in the listing photos.
“It’s been a tough month,” she said.
At an Airbnb in Asheville, North Carolina, they planned to meet up with another couple who also work. When they arrived they found that the internet connection was not reliable enough to get the job done. Ultimately, the four of them had to rent a second Airbnb for a week and only commute there for the internet.
“We just got into the trouble of being nomadic and living outside of Airbnbs – there’s one element of surprise,” said Buckley, a start-up manager.
In fact, unreliable WiFi was the main complaint among all of CNBC’s Airbnb nomads surveyed. Some have complained about handling Wi-Fi, which fluctuates between electrifyingly fast and completely disconnected. Another nomad told CNBC that he estimates that around 10% of the units he stays in have poor WiFi.
This is why James Vaught and Mack Sullivan, longtime nomads, always scour the reviews to get information on a unit’s WiFi quality before booking a short-term unit. They also make sure they leave detailed Wi-Fi and internet speed ratings when they leave. In addition, Sullivan and Vaught always rent units where they have all the space to themselves so they don’t have to share the internet with the host family or other guests. They also tend to look for places that advertise a smart TV or Roku – signals that the place has internet that is at least good enough to stream video.
Nomads Mack Sullivan and James Vaught at an Airbnb in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.
Courtesy Mack Sullivan and James Vaught
“Between what they are promoting and the reality, all you have to do is hope that you have good people who have written accurate reviews,” said Sullivan, who blogs about his nomadic experience with Vaught.
Vaught and Sullivan have been nomads since 2016. Back then, the two of them were working from a mobile home. They later tended to sign short rental contracts for apartments that, as they put it, lived as “slow-mads”. But since April 2020, the couple has been leading their nomadic lifestyle exclusively through Airbnb.
They appreciate that when they book through Airbnb they know the total price they will pay from the moment they book. In contrast to a short stay in an apartment, you do not have to worry about paying additional costs, a deposit or anything else.
Sullivan and Vaught also like the fact that Airbnb is more likely to assist guests when problems arise. You have previously used competing websites and ended up in a non-advertised situation with a unit that received little help from the company.
When vaccines for Covid-19 are distributed, some people go back to their previous lives.
For example, Ditto and his family will move into a rental house at the end of the month. Although Airbnb was good to them in 2020, Ditto said he missed his own furniture and the feeling of being in his home.
“You lose the feeling of home when you sleep in someone else’s bed and sit on someone else’s couch,” said Ditto.
In the meantime, Pawlisch was able to lock up an apartment in San Francisco that she had long seen at a bargain price.
“Tulum doesn’t feel real. It’s a fairy tale,” said Pawlisch. “But I’m ready to have my own place and feel a little more grounded.”
However, others have fallen into living with the lifestyle and plan to continue living it for the foreseeable future.
“I’ve never had this freedom in my life,” said Buckley. “I love the excitement when we see our next Airbnb.”
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