Many places have seen an influx of people taking advantage of companies work-from-anywhere policies.
Ah, millennials: their hate of offices, love of travel, and expectation that everybody else accommodate their desire to work from the beach.
While so much of that attitude often comes from generational resentments and stereotypes, the pandemic did push many who previously couldn’t to be more mobile while also working remotely on their laptop.
A study by online freelancing platform Upwork found that over 26% of the American workforce worked remotely for at least part of 2021.
But working remotely is a lot more pleasurable when you’re close to the water, mountains, or a huge metropolis instead of a parents’ basement — that is, at least, what Airbnb (ABNB) – Get Airbnb Inc. Report found in a recent round-up of towns and cities in the U.S. and Canada that saw the most remote workers.
“With millions of people now more flexible about where they live and work, guests are spreading to thousands of towns and cities this summer – over 72,000 cities and towns, to be exact – with many even ‘living’ on Airbnb for the entire season,” the short-term rental platform wrote.
Where Do People Go When They Can Go Anywhere? Big Cities And Beach Towns
Los Angeles came out on top as the city where remote workers booked the most stays. Big cities like New York, San Francisco, and Houston landed in the top five in the U.S. while Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver were the most popular in Canada.
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Similarly to Upwork’s findings, the short-term rental platform found that approximately 20% of those who booked Airbnb stays in 2021 were looking for places to work remotely.
But due to the higher cost of rent in beach and resort towns, places like La Quinta in California and Delray Beach in Florida are the most lucrative for hosts.
In Canada, the skirt resort of Whistler and the city of Vancouver made the top five places to earn as a host for very similar reasons.
While locals often complain about digital nomads descending on a place and changing its culture, Oregon’s Bend was found to be the most hospitable to newcomers — 93.7% of guests who stayed there in 2021 got a five-star review.
Smaller towns that see fewer tourists may be more likely to welcome digital nomads who add to the economy, but cities like New Mexico’s Santa Fe and Nova Scotia’s Halifax also had very high numbers of hosts happy with their visitors.
Another criticism of the “digital nomad” lifestyle is that it often depends on a certain “cushion” of material comfort can sponsor constant hopping around — often, independent wealth or a parental home that one can retreat to at any time if out of money.
A Trend That Is Likely To Continue
But when it comes to affordability, cities like Tulalip, Washington and Catlett, Virginia had over 1,000 stays booked in the first quarter of 2022, while the average nightly price was a respective $16.90 and $21.80.
In Canada, the cheapest place popular with digital nomads was Trois-Rivières, Québec even if a nightly stay cost significantly more at $35.60 per night.
Cities like California’s Irvine, Ohio’s Cincinnati and Ontario’s Toronto, meanwhile, had the most listings equipped for long-term stays.
Even though the traditional image of a digital nomad has been of a freelancer, this lifestyle is also becoming increasingly popular among a certain type of full-time employee.
While companies like JP Morgan (JPM) – Get JP Morgan Chase & Co. Report and Google (GOOGL) – Get Alphabet Inc. Report have been steadfast in bringing employees back to the office, others have allowed employees to work remotely — and, as the numbers show, this flexibility becoming a deciding factor for many who are in the market for a job.
“In the first week following the announcement [that employees could work from anywhere permanently,] Airbnb received more than 1 million visitors to our career page – reinforcing the appetite people have to live and work anywhere,” the company said.
