Author(s): EA Ndaguba
Some economies are shrinking, while others are experiencing downtime due to the spread of the coronavirus disease pandemic. Social integration and rural development are weakened in municipalities in South Africa as a result of government mediated approach for reducing the curve of the Coronavirus disease, such as a lockdown. This paper assesses the effect of COVID-19 lockdown on Airbnb performance between May 2017 and April 2020 in 17 cities in Cape Town neighbourhood with a focus on the COVID-19 era January 1-April 30, 2020. Our finding demonstrates that COVID-19 did not have a significant effect on Airbnb performance in Cape Town. However, policies for flattering the COVID-19 curve, such as lockdown which brought about travel restrictions, depleted international and local guests significantly and reduced the revenue of Airbnb by over 200 million Rands in a month March to April 2020 in 17 cities in the Cape Town neighbourhood.