Airbnb turned off most of its ads, and the traffic came back anyway

In 2020, Airbnb killed most of its ads. Once people started traveling again, Brian Chesky said traffic came back to about 95% of where it was before, with almost all the ads still off.

Our guess is most of those people never came from an ad. They came from a friend back from a weekend away, who would not stop talking about the treehouse she rented. In that story she's the main character, and Airbnb is just where it happened.

When Airbnb did start spending again, its big campaign was built from real photos of real guests' trips, with the house in the background. Make the post your customer's story, and let your brand be where it happened.

Be the obvious choice, not another copy.