Tomorrow will mark International Day of Older Persons, and the United Nations has designated this year’s theme as “Digital Equity for All Ages”, to highlight the need for access to the digital world by older persons as a means of both enabling connection and addressing inequities.

Empowering all generations to connect has never been more important. While the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically upended all of our lives, there is no doubt that older adults have faced some of the most severe changes over the past year and a half. Many older persons – facing even higher risk for serious complications from COVID-19 – have faced unprecedented and prolonged separation from their loved ones.

As the world recovers, people are seeing travel on Airbnb as a primary way to come together again and reconnect, as part of a larger travel revolution – including older adults, many of whom are undoubtedly particularly eager to reunite with family and friends once again. Over the past year, the number of older adult guests on Airbnb in the US has grown by nearly 20 percent*. Like many, they are also increasingly turning traveling into living on Airbnb: from 2019 to 2021, we have seen a more than 90 percent increase in the number of bookings by older adult guests for long-term stays**.