Airbnb Emerges as Top-Spending Travel Brand on U.S. TV in 2022

25.08.2023 - 14:45 / skift.com / Delta Air Lines / Dennis Schaal

Airbnb was the top-spending travel brand on U.S. national TV during the first 11 months of 2022 at an estimated $86.5 million, but it was merely the ninth most-seen among travel websites, hotels and motels, resorts and theme parks, cruise lines and airlines.

That’s according to an estimate from TV analytics firm iSpot.tv. This pertains only to TV ads that run nationally; the estimate is only covers the United States.

That Airbnb emphasized brand advertising on TV is not surprising. The short-term rental giant has been vocal about preferring brand advertising in its various forms, including online video and TV, to search engine marketing. In doing so, Airbnb sought to attract new hosts, and generate bookings from guests directly on its websites or app.

But it was a budget hotel brand, Choice Hotels, that attracted the most eyeballs so far in 2022 on U.S. national TV.

“After sitting out TV ads almost entirely in 2021, Choice Hotels spent $43.4 million this year (#8 in spend) and was the most-seen travel brand by a considerable margin,” iSpot.tv stated. “Same goes for Booking.com (#5 in spend), which spent more ($51 million) than Choice Hotels, but was seen less, with 6.81 percent of TV ad impressions on the year.”

Interestingly, Booking Holdings’ Priceline.com brand generated the fifth-highest number of TV ad impressions among all travel brands, but wasn’t in the top 10 among spenders.

Delta Air Lines was the second biggest spender ($72.7 million) and Expedia.com was third ($69 million), the iSpot.tv estimate found.

However, Expedia Group brands, namely Expedia.com (#3 at $69 million), Vrbo (#9 at $38.1 million) and Hotels.com (#10 at $32.3 million), collectively outspent Airbnb: $139.4 million for Expedia Group versus $86.5 million for Airbnb, the analysis found.

In a sign that it is putting a substantial effort into its push to take market share in the U.S., Netherlands-based Booking.com ran 159 more TV spots on U.S. national TV during the first 11 months of 2022, compared with the same period a year earlier, iSpot.tv stated.

Choice Hotels ran 139 more spots during the period compared with January to November 2021, and attracted the most eyeballs with 10.92 percent of all travel TV ad impressions. Booking.com, which upped its number of spots by 159, attracted 6.81 percent of ad impressions, and Expedia.com, which ran the same number of spots as the previous year, took third place with 6.61 percent of ad impressions on U.S. national TV.

Of course, in terms of Airbnb (#9 at 3.96 percent of TV ad impressions) attracting way fewer ad impressions than Choice Hotels (#1 at 10.92 percent), Booking.com (#2 at 6.81 percent) and Expedia.com (#3 at 6.61 percent), it should be noted that quantities of ad