“AIRBNB IS NOT A THREAT TO HOTEL GROUPS”: HADI MOUSSA, AIRBNB

Hadi Moussa, Airbnb regional director for Middle East and Africa and head of EMEA Business Development.

Airbnb, the world’s most popular online booking platform has established itself as a solution to the limited accommodation provided by the traditional hotel and guest house industry.
Hadi Moussa, the company’s regional director for Middle East and Africa and head of EMEA Business Development, spoke to sister publication Jeune Afrique on his Africa strategy.

Jeune Afrique: What are your most dynamic markets on the continent?
Hadi Moussa: The continent as a whole is a very important market dynamic. Since Airbnb was founded in 2008, nearly 3.5 million travellers have booked their accommodation using the platform. South Africa is our largest market, not only in terms of the number of travellers but also in terms of the number of hosts. Morocco leads in French-speaking Africa, where the growth rates have been very encouraging. Moreover, the number of travellers have doubled each year in some countries such as the DRC, Cameroon, Guinea and Tunisia.

What is the profile of your clients in Africa?

As in the rest of the world, eight out of ten travellers book via the platform because they want to explore a destination by staying as closely as possible to the locals. International visitors form the majority of travellers in French-speaking Africa. They mainly come from France, Germany, Great Britain and the United States, countries where Airbnb already has a strong presence. However, there has been an increase in the number of travellers on the national and regional scale. This trend is even stronger when the market is mature. For example, 44% of South Africans who used Airbnb to travel actually used the platform to stay in their own country. In Kenya, the growth in domestic demand is greater than 200%!

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