Family Travel Was at an All-Time High in 2022

Family travel continues to rein supreme in the post-pandemic travel realm, which Airbnb confirmed in a recently-released global report. In fact, in 2022, family travel was up 60% from pre-pandemic numbers, with more than 15 million check-ins in nearly 90,000 destinations.That said, it’s not solely the need for family time that has people flocking to the rental platform. The affordability plays a huge role, too.

According to the report, families can get an Airbnb with two bedrooms and two bathrooms for approximately the price of one hotel room at a major chain. Further, a quarter of Airbnb listings have three bedrooms or more, more than one million of them have cribs for small children and nearly 90% have kitchens, the importance of which cannot be understated when traveling with family. Really, all these factors are total game changers if you’re traveling with a kid or two.

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But, as any budget-conscious traveler will tell you, there are more than a handful of variables at play where saving money is involved, time of year chief among them. Fortunately, the report covers that, too. Fall and winter were the most affordable times for families to book an Airbnb listing last year, with October, November and December all averaging less than $50 per person, per night globally.

The most interesting bit of all, however, is that the pursuit of affordable accommodations didn’t deter families from taking jaunts of the far-flung variety. Quite the opposite, actually. The most popular destinations for families where Airbnb listings that averaged less than $50 per night, per person in 2022 and included Somerset, United Kingdom; Bridgetown, Barbados; Alghero, Italy; Whakatane, New Zealand; Highlands, Canada; Port St. Lucie, Florida; Washington, Utah; Camuy, Puerto Rico; Greater Brisbane, Australia; and Playas de Rosarito, Mexico. The most plausible explanation being that the less money you spend on a place to stay, the more you have to spend on quite literally everything else.

Something to remember the next time you find yourself surrendering to yet another $6,000 week-long trip to Disney with your kids. Because why go to Orlando when you could go to Whakatane?