After the pandemic created a new breed of traveler, Airbnb last month introduced a series of new category offerings designed to answer new flexible needs. Now, ahead of the busy summer travel season, the hospitality brand is debuting a global marketing campaign that will highlight destinations in a new way.

The new offerings separate properties by 56 different categories, rather than just locations. So a traveler looking for a campsite within driving distance would, in theory, find spots in new towns and areas that were not under consideration before. Travelers can also search by architectural design elements within the "Design" category, for example.

“Prior to the pandemic, we had search and everyone really searched for the same things—you would search and find what was available in that destination and pick—but during the pandemic, we saw people were more open to trying new places,” said Nancy King, VP of marketing at Airbnb. “Categories helped us solidify this new behavior—it doesn’t show you what’s available, it shows you what’s possible.”

Airbnb found that long-term stays were at an all-time high in the first quarter of 2022, more than double what they were in the same period in 2019, pre-pandemic. The uptick is due to more people working remotely, giving the flexibility to blend work and travel spaces away from home. In addition, a new “I’m flexible” feature, which Airbnb introduced last year, has been used over 2 billion times, the company said. It allows people to shift dates and destinations. 

Four 30-second TV spots build awareness for the categories. Each commercial, featuring photos taken from photographers on trips, tackles a different offering, including “Camping,” “Amazing Pools,” “Castles” and “OMG!” Iconic songs such as Bob Dylan’s “Shelter from the Storm” accompany the images.

“The role of music is to provide a little extra emotion around the experience that the guests are having on the trips,” said Eric Grunbaum, VP of creative at Airbnb. He and his creative team of around 65 staffers within Airbnb worked on the campaign. Essence Global handled media duties.

The spots will air on national TV as well as streaming services and digital and social channels such as Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram. The campaign will also include a significant out-of-home buy in cities around the world including Los Angeles, New York, London and Paris.

“You have to see the breadth of categories to understand, so we’ve bought clusters of out-of-home boards in highly trafficked areas to give people the sense of being immersed in the categories,” said King.

Demand for summer travel is high as pent-up demand results in more consumers taking trips. However, the growing increase in fuel costs could cause some demand to shift. King said that the current economic climate is slowing interest for international travel, but that Airbnb is seeing “strong demand on domestic." Still, a recent report from market research firm Numerator found that 37% of consumers have modified travel plans due to high gas prices, including 21% who have pushed plans out.

Last month, Airbnb reported better-than-expected quarterly results and predicted a strong summer. Revenue grew 70% to $1.5 billion in the first quarter compared with the year-earlier period.