Airbnb the California based online marketplace focused on short-term homestays is seeing an expansion in its “experiences” sector and specifically vineyard experiences. According to a press release from the hospitality giant, stays near vineyards earned more than $270 million for US based hosts during the second quarter, spring of 2022. Airbnb reported that US hosts located near a winery typically earned more than $8,000 from April to June 2022 and that there are more than 120,000 listings in the Vineyard Category around the world as of May 2022.
Airbnb launched a categories-based search system this spring and one of those categories is vineyards. Napa Valley is considered the market leader and has one of the most mature wine tourism industries in the world with hotel nights regularly surpassing $1000 per night in the 5-star hotels such as the Auberge du Soleil or Calistoga Ranch. But Airbnb also reported that California led the earnings in the vineyard category too with $61 million in Q2 2022. Like Napa Valley, the Bordeaux wine region has a growing wine tourism industry although despite being 5 times the size of Napa Valley (by vineyard area) it is several years behind with the quality and scale of its hospitality offerings. But there are enterprising families and large global brands that are starting to change the Bordeaux wine tourism industry. A significant wine tourism project has received zoning approval for a 5-star hotel, spa and restaurant at Chateau Carignan set in about 130 hectares of rural landscape and vineyards but only 15 minutes’ drive from the city centre of Bordeaux. Further away a building permit has been approved for over 50 rooms at Chateau de L’Arche in the Sauternes – but large projects such as these are very rare in Bordeaux due to the very heavy barriers to entry and of course the highly protected vineyards themselves.
The barriers to entry for larger hotels to secure planning and permits leaves a gap in the market for Airbnb that tends to focus on the smaller family-based offerings. In France, as long as the vineyard hospitality business is no more than five bedrooms it is classified as a “chambres d’hotes” or bed and breakfast. The permitting and regulations are both light and limited, making a new wine country hospitality project much easier to launch in the bed & breakfast category.
Vineyards-Bordeaux recently sold an archetypical wine tourism estate to an Australian-American family. Clos de la Barbanne is located in the heart of the prime Bordeaux vineyard country just moments from the UNESCO world heritage site of Saint Emilion and its famed “Classified” vineyards. The Clos de la Barbanne is focused on the luxury end of the market but according to Airbnb’s statistics wine tourism attracts all types at all levels if the US figures can be transported to the Bordeaux wine country. Airbnb state that vineyard-bound US guests range from Gen X (31 percent) to Baby -boomers (16 percent), families looking for an outdoor escape (28 percent) to romantic duos or friend-cations with two BFFs (31 percent).
Anecdotally (and having spent 15 years in Bordeaux) I suspect that our local wine tourism numbers would be heavier on romantic duos and baby-boomers. The UK has also seen massive growth in the vineyard category – in 2021 Airbnb reported that £35 million was earned by their vineyard hosts and the recent acquisition by sparkling wine giant Freixenet of the Bolney Wine estate located in Sussex, England is another indication of the significant potential that vineyard tourism holds.
The evidence that Napa Valley and its neighbour cousin Sonoma Valley give us is that Bordeaux has significant capacity to absorb in this growing experience-based tourism sector. Napa also teaches us that rather than competing against each other the combined effect of new hotels and wine tourism activity leads to all boats rising.
