April 18th, 2022, Hoang Nguyen
YouGov has been measuring consumer perceptions toward brand involvement in the conflict and finds that a vast majority consumers in the US and Great Britain say brands should donate money or supplies to humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.
Read the full stories on what Americans and Britons think about brands and the Russia-Ukraine conflict
In a new analysis, we look specifically at one company’s involvement in Ukraine to understand just how opinions of its brand and consideration for its services have changed so far. Accommodation rental company Airbnb is currently offering housing for up to 100,000 fleeing Ukrainians. In addition to funding short term housing, the travel brand is also matching donations aimed at helping people find shelter and safety.
YouGov polled 13,375 consumers across the world in eight key markets to find that 30% of global consumers say the decision to aid refugees improved their opinion of the brand and that they are more willing to book and stay at an Airbnb property in the future as a result.
Consumers in India (48%), the Philippines (46%) and Indonesia (36%) are the most likely to say their opinions of and consideration for Airbnb improved after the company’s decision.
A third of Australians (33%) and a quarter of US (26%) and UK (23%) consumers also viewed the company more positively and say they are now more likely to book with Airbnb. Roughly a fifth of French (21%) and German (18%) consumers hold the same view.
Across the eight markets, 22% of consumers say the move by Airbnb improved their opinion of the brand but that they are still unlikely to book and stay with the travel company.
Roughly one in eight global respondents say Airbnb’s response to the crisis did not change their opinion, but that they still plan to book and stay at an Airbnb property in the future (13%).
And lastly, less than a fifth of all global respondents say the response did not change their opinion and that they still don’t intend to book or stay with Airbnb (18%).
Data from YouGov BrandIndex—which tracks consumer perceptions of brands on a daily basis—shows Airbnb’s response to the crisis coincides with several upticks in the travel company’s brand health metrics, particularly among US consumers.
Notably, it featured as the company that made the most significant improvements in our latest monthly analysis of the brands which showed the most improvement across February and March 2022.
See how Airbnb fared among the top-performing brands in the US between February and March 2022
Airbnb has grown its scores in key areas of brand health after it announced it would help Ukrainian refugees: Word of Mouth Exposure (which tracks whether people have been talking with friends and family about a brand), Recommend (whether a consumer would recommend a brand to a friend or colleague), and Reputation (whether a someone would be proud or embarrassed to work for a company) all increased.
Methodology
YouGov interviewed 13,375 consumers in Australia (n=1,074), France (1,115), Germany (1,926), India (1,027), Indonesia (2,224), the Philippines (1,112), the UK (2,078) and the US (2,078) between March 21-30, 2022. Interviews were conducted online and data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from India (urban representative sample) and Indonesia (online representative sample).
Receive monthly topical insights about the travel and tourism industry, straight to your inbox. Sign up today.
Discover more travel and tourism content here