Rental accommodation provider Airbnb wrapped up 2021 by hosting more than 4.5 million people in its properties across the globe on December 31.
From Italy to the US, Peru, the UAE and hundreds of places in between, millions of visitors spent New Year’s Eve in 53,000 Airbnb accommodations in 220 countries.
Brazil, which is famed for its festive celebrations, was the most popular destination for travellers searching for a stay to wind down the year, but people also sought out more remote destinations, often famed for their mountains and snow.
After a year that kept a lot of us inside our own homes because of travel restrictions, isolation requirements and rising Covid-19 cases, people were keen to find somewhere different to ring in the new year.
Farm stays were the most popular unique stays on Airbnb on December 31, with nearly 50,000 guests checking in to a farm or prairie home to welcome 2022.
Tiny houses were also popular, with 30,000 bookings for the minuscule properties. And more than 3,500 guests sought the exact opposite, choosing to spend New Year’s Eve in castles across the world.
Tree houses and yurts were also highly popular choices for 'unique stays' and more than 850 guests booked to bed-down on private islands to truly get away from it all. More than 130 hardy travellers chose to stay in an igloo, for a sub-zero start to the new year.
Airbnb has revealed that this New Year’s Eve was the biggest night for the company since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The data is despite the company’s ban on one-night bookings which was introduced to help prevent parties or large gatherings.
The most popular place for stays on New Year's Eve was Praia Grande in Sao Paulo while Malaysia’s Subang Jaya near Kuala Lumpur was the second most popular destination.
Italy’s Piedmont – known for its alpine ski-runs – ranked in third place, while Gerardmer in France and Portugal's Santarem made up the rest of the top five trending destinations.
People also travelled further for the holidays with more than 40 per cent of Airbnb bookings on New Year’s Eve for places located more than 1,000 miles away from guests’ origins.
Despite ongoing travel restrictions around the world, many regions saw a spike in traveller numbers from specific destinations when compared to visitorship on New Year’s Eve 2019.
The US saw a 210 per cent growth in travellers from Turkey, while German travellers to Portugal increased by 190 per cent. Costa Rican tourists flocked to the UK this year, with a 140 per cent increase in traveller numbers from the tropical destination, and people from France were keen to explore Ireland, with Airbnb documenting a 130 per cent rise in the number of French visitors to the Emerald Isle.
THE%20HOLDOVERS
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The biog
Hobby: Playing piano and drawing patterns
Best book: Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins
Food of choice: Sushi
Favourite colour: Orange
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Places to go for free coffee
- Cherish Cafe Dubai, Dubai Investment Park, are giving away free coffees all day.
- La Terrace, Four Points by Sheraton Bur Dubai, are serving their first 50 guests one coffee and four bite-sized cakes
- Wild & The Moon will be giving away a free espresso with every purchase on International Coffee Day
- Orange Wheels welcome parents are to sit, relax and enjoy goodies at ‘Café O’ along with a free coffee
Tree of Hell
Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla
Director: Raed Zeno
Rating: 4/5
More on Quran memorisation:
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
Brief scores:
Toss: Sindhis, elected to field first
Pakhtoons 137-6 (10 ov)
Fletcher 68 not out; Cutting 2-14
Sindhis 129-8 (10 ov)
Perera 47; Sohail 2-18
Founders: Ines Mena, Claudia Ribas, Simona Agolini, Nourhan Hassan and Therese Hundt
Date started: January 2017, app launched November 2017
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Private/Retail/Leisure
Number of Employees: 18 employees, including full-time and flexible workers
Funding stage and size: Seed round completed Q4 2019 - $1m raised
Funders: Oman Technology Fund, 500 Startups, Vision Ventures, Seedstars, Mindshift Capital, Delta Partners Ventures, with support from the OQAL Angel Investor Network and UAE Business Angels
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BRIEF SCORES:
Toss: Nepal, chose to field
UAE 153-6: Shaiman (59), Usman (30); Regmi 2-23
Nepal 132-7: Jora 53 not out; Zahoor 2-17
Result: UAE won by 21 runs
Series: UAE lead 1-0
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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How much of your income do you need to save?
The more you save, the sooner you can retire. Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.com, says if you save just 5 per cent of your salary, you can expect to work for another 66 years before you are able to retire without too large a drop in income.
In other words, you will not save enough to retire comfortably. If you save 15 per cent, you can forward to another 43 working years. Up that to 40 per cent of your income, and your remaining working life drops to just 22 years. (see table)
Obviously, this is only a rough guide. How much you save will depend on variables, not least your salary and how much you already have in your pension pot. But it shows what you need to do to achieve financial independence.
