Hate to burst the bubble, but we should regulate Airbnb, VRBO and the like

Chicago residences rented through Airbnb, VRBO and other websites without proper licensing and regulation may irreparably harm Chicago's tourism industry. A vibrant tourism industry is critical to the Chicago economy and provides thousands of jobs to local workers.

The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce does not want to see these jobs and tax revenue at risk because a segment of the marketplace is not licensed.

The chamber embraces the shared economy. In the case of lodging, it brings activity to neighborhoods, provides supplemental income to residents and keeps Chicago current with other global cities. Services like Airbnb, however, have become big business. Instead of our neighbors renting their home for a week each year, entrepreneurs are buying up blocks of condos for the exclusive purpose of renting them out 52 weeks a year.

More troubling is that less than 200 of the more than 6,000 Chicago short-term rentals are licensed and few, if any, follow hotel industry safety protocols.

The hotel industry and condominium associations have implored the city to crack down on illegal rentals, but very little has been done.

New ordinances were recently introduced in the City Council that make regulation somewhat murkier, but we envision a simple fix: All laws must distinguish between somebody's primary residence versus the non-primary business operations described earlier. One hundred percent of non-primary residences must be licensed and adhere to similar regulations as hotels.

Read more @ http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20160427/OPINION/160429859/hate-to-burst-the-bubble-but-we-should-regulate-airbnb-vrbo-and-the-like

Chicago’s Domestic Tourist Arrivals Hit Record 51 Million in 2015

That was close to a 5 percent increase over the previous year.

An announcement Tuesday by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office said Chicago was one of just three U.S. cities to rack up more than 50 million visitors.

Emanuel’s office said marquee events helped boost the numbers. Those included the NFL Draft and the James Beard Foundation Awards. Both events are returning to Chicago over the coming week. And this summer, Chicago and Lake Michigan will host the America’s Cup. It’s the first time in the sailing competition’s 164-year history that it will be held in a freshwater setting.

In this report, we look at ways airlines can build more reliable paths to true passenger personalization, to reinforce brand, build strong loyalty relationships, reduce the burden on front-line personnel empowering them with the tools and information to respond appropriately to customer needs, and to raise purchase rates of ancillary and a-la-carte products and services.

Read more @ https://skift.com/2016/04/19/new-skift-report-how-airlines-can-create-a-customer-centric-digital-experience/

Is Airbnb really helping New York City’s historically black neighborhoods?

A recent report published by Airbnb claims that the “home-sharing” platform has provided a marked “economic opportunity” to New York City’s historically black neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy and West Harlem. According to Airbnb’s analysis, in the past year it saw the most significant growth of its userbase in black neighborhoods as compared to any other kind of neighborhood in the city.

“In the 30 New York City zip codes with the largest black populations by percentage, the number of Airbnb guests grew 78% year-over-year, versus 51% citywide,” the report explains. “In fact, of the 1.26 million people who visited New York City via Airbnb last year, 1 in 7 stayed with a host in these neighborhoods.”

Taken at face value, Airbnb’s claim of providing black retirees and empty nesters with the chance to make a bit of money on the side reads like a good thing. But there are some local New Yorkers who are skeptical of the story the company’s trying to sell. Specifically, there’s no real way that Airbnb can prove that actual black people are using and benefitting from its business.

Murray Cox, a data analyst working out of Bed-Stuy, contends that Airbnb is actually one of the forces contributing to the gentrification of these neighborhoods.

Read more @ http://fusion.net/story/295484/airbnb-nyc-black-neighborhoods/

San Francisco wants Airbnb to help enforce rental law

Airbnb could be held responsible for policing San Francisco listings that violate the city's short-term rental law.

San Francisco Supervisors David Campos and Aaron Peskin plan to introduce legislation on Tuesday that will hold sites like Airbnb responsible for verifying that hosts are following the city's law. Current law requires hosts to register, carry liability insurance, pay transient occupancy taxes and uphold a 90-day cap on unhosted rentals, among other things.

The supervisors are proposing that any hosting site that doesn't follow the mandate would face fines of up to $1,000 per day per unregistered, aka illegal, listing.

"The legislation I am introducing tomorrow with Supervisor Peskin will ensure that Web platforms are supporting -- and not hindering -- the enforcement of our short term rental law in San Francisco," said Campos in a statement. "This is not about changing the current law, it's about enforcing the current law."

Read more @ http://www.cnet.com/news/san-francisco-wants-airbnb-to-help-enforce-rental-law/

Pictures of hosts, not homes, key for Airbnb renters, study shows

If you’ve always been told that you have a face that can be trusted, you might be able to make a killing renting out your place on Airbnb, the online sharing economy rental site.

New research from Hebrew University indicates that it is not location, price, size, or customer reviews of a property that is most important for Airbnb users when they make a decision on renting a place – but whether or not they feel the renter can be “trusted,” based on their profile photo.

While the effect of product attributes such as apartment size and location is rather obvious, consumers’ responsiveness to seller attributes such as reputation and personal photos has yet to be studied,” said Prof. Aliza Fleischer, the Yekutiel X. Federmann Chair in Hotel Management in the Department of Environmental Economics and Management at the Hebrew University.

Read more @http://www.timesofisrael.com/pictures-of-hosts-not-homes-key-for-airbnb-renters-study-shows/

Airbnb Announces Strategic Ties With The Times Group

Airbnb, The world’s leading community driven hospitality company, announced its strategic partnership with The Times of India Group. The partnership comes as part of Airbnb’s plans to focus on developing the Indian travel market. As a part of the partnership, The Times Group will drive awareness of Airbnb accommodations, and help Airbnb create a truly localized presence for India, leveraging The Times Group’s vast network of media and operational resources.

What is clear is that India is becoming a priority market for Airbnb. The tie-up will enable Airbnb to develop a “localized presence” in India while giving it access to the Times Group’s “vast network of media and operational resources”.
Earlier this year Airbnb announced that it was working with Thomas Cook India, offering international “flight plus Airbnb” packages.
And just over twelve months ago Times Group invested in Uber. The statement at the time said that Times Group reaches more than 200 million Indians across its digital, print and TV channels.

Read more @ http://techstory.in/18042016-airbnb-announces-strategic-ties-times-group/

Airbnb is the big sleeper for Mantra Group, Citi says

We've had the Uber effect on Cabcharge, now prepare for the Airbnb effect on hotel groups such as market darling Mantra Group. 

That's the view from Citi retail and leisure analyst Sam Teeger, who has started coverage on Mantra with a non-consensus "sell" call and $3.50 a share price target. 

Teeger reckons Mantra faces significant competition from Airbnb and online travel agents, and increasing supply in some of its key markets. 

It's the sort of disruption theory that is very topical among fund managers but hard to value given limited data available on the likes of Airbnb. It also comes as The Grattan Institute ralled governments and policymakers to encourage the sharing economy rather than try to nobble it with new rules. 

"Google Search and Airbnb review data indicates a significant increase in Australian Airbnb activity over the last 12 months, which in our view has been masked by strong hotel demand," Teeger told clients on Thursday morning. 

"However, we expect Airbnb to exacerbate the cyclicality in the hotel industry when demand slows.

"We currently see the economy leisure sector as most vulnerable to Airbnb, which is where Breakfree is positioned (~20% of Mantra's properties).

"Further downside could arise if Airbnb breaks into the corporate market through the BridgeStreet agreement or should property owners increasingly bypass Mantra and list their units on Airbnb." 

Mantra shares were down 2.9 per cent to $3.98 on Thursday morning.

Read more: http://www.afr.com/street-talk/airbnb-is-the-big-sleeper-for-mantra-group-citi-says-20160421-gobm3m#ixzz46Qx0YkxV 
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How Airbnb has lost its soul

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t was the summer of 2008 in San Francisco and a small company called Airbnb had a dream. People with spare bedrooms would welcome strangers into their homes and share their restaurant recommendations with them for a small fee.

Fast forward to 2016 and the now quite big and successful Airbnb is considered one of the mainstays of what we have come to call “the sharing economy”. It is also, in every article written on millennials, the business that defines the mentality of a generation.

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Why? First, because it has subtly commoditised the “unique” experience. It offers people a way to feel both spontaneous and that they are somehow circumventing the world of big business. The word that Airbnb uses to describe the kind of holiday its users might have is “authentic”. “We make it easy for you to get to know hosts,” boasts the website, picturing a smiling lady with a half-chopped cucumber.

But Airbnb has lost its soul. No longer is it just about one human sharing their home with another. Something quite annoying has happened: companies offering property management services have emerged to help hosts get the best deal for their rooms. This is great news for hosts, but bad news for everyone else. It is also something of a reversal of one of the principles that first made Airbnb different — disintermediation.

Read more @ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1fbef27e-022b-11e6-ac98-3c15a1aa2e62.html#axzz46L2cGDOk

Airbnb to collect taxes in more places throughout state

 Travelers both in state and out of state renting from the popular Airbnb website will be seeing the company collecting taxes in more places throughout the state. Local governments view the taxes as vital revenue streams.

The company is working with local governments to eventually get the taxes collected throughout the state. The tax varies per county.

You’re going on a trip and might want to skip the hotel. Popular alternative Airbnb offers rooms or even whole houses in local neighborhoods. But some Florida counties are missing out on tourism taxes. 

Leon County is one of them

“Our budget 100 percent comes from the tourist development tax, and that’s the tax that our guests pay who are staying in our commercial lodging establishments,” said Leon County Tourism Development director Lee Daniel.

He said Airbnb has been working with them to expand. They started collecting taxes for 22 counties in December and just added another four.

“Airbnb is being, to their credit, a good corporate citizen and reaching out to all counties in Florida, collecting a tourism development tax,” Daniel said.

In Tallahassee, the rentals are popular during legislative session and Florid

Read more @ http://www.news4jax.com/news/airbnb-to-collect-taxes-in-more-places-throughout-state

Debate over Airbnb and Uber reveals hypocrisy of 'sharing' economy

I grew up steeped in what might be termed the "sharing economy" of its day.

It's probably technically better described as 'the "grey market." Whatever — a label's a label.

If you knew someone who could get you eggs, give you a haircut, or rewire your home at a fraction of the over-the-table price, surely only a fool would shell out the extra cash. The produce was fresh, you knew where to find the electrician if things went wrong, and as for haircuts, well, we're talking about the '70s.

• Regulation could strengthen sharing economy in long run
• Airbnb Canada agrees on need for new regulations and data sharing
• New Toronto Uber, taxi rules unlikely to go ahead as proposed

I'm willing to bet it's an economy millions of Canadians are familiar with.

The taxman may have been cheated out of a few bucks, but the small amounts people saved by going off book from time to time wasn't going to bankrupt the country.

The difference between then and now — obviously — was technology. The guy who fixed your car on the sly was never going to harness the power of social media to threaten the global automotive repair business.

Nor was the plumber, the tile layer or the electrician; they all worked during the week for the overcharging businesses they undercut on the weekends.

Read more @ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/uber-airbnb-sharing-economy-1.3526114

Pete McMartin: Burned by the Sharing Economy? Full of Hot Airbnb

The newest enemy to be identified in The War On Real Estate is the proliferation of short-term rental (STR) suites in Metro Vancouver, the consensus being that their popularity has contributed to (a) the rental housing shortage, (b) rising real estate prices, and (c) more overwrought media stories about rental housing shortages and rising real estate prices. I know at least one of the above is right.

Since the City of Vancouver proper contains over 75 per cent of the almost 4,800 STRs in the Metro area, its city council has been under the most pressure to do something about them. This, it has promised to do. I have no idea what that something would be, or if even doing that something is feasible, given the enforcement difficulties presented by the exponential growth of STRs. It should tell you something that stories about such rental services, of which Airbnb is but one of several in Metro, often use the phrase “technically illegal” to describe them, as if illegality could be measured in degrees, as if STRs were guilty of the same level of venality of, say, urinating in public. Be discreet enough and the law will look the other way.

But if the majority of STRs in Vancouver are illegal, then why, one asks, doesn’t the city prosecute them? Because, the answer out of City Hall is that the prosecution of them presents the same problem as that of illegal suites (which, I am certain, outnumber STRs in Metro by many, many thousands). Despite what the public may think, the city does not have at the ready platoons of bylaw officers, who, at any rate, are otherwise preoccupied. They don’t go looking for STRs. So enforcement — as it is in the case of illegal suites — is complaint-initiated. Even when a complaint is received, investigations can take time. Evidence has to be assembled. “It becomes,” said Coun. Geoff Meggs, who is the city’s point man on the issue, “a very complex business.”

Read more @ http://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/pete-mcmartin-burned-by-the-sharing-economy

How Airbnb's design tricks make us trust complete strangers

Airbnb has become so normalized among certain segments of the population that we rarely stop to think about the enormous feat the company has performed in getting its customers to trust complete strangers - on one side, the guests who stay in random homes, and on the other, the hosts who open up their abodes to people who they have never met.

This is no accident. Airbnb has figured out how to design for trust. Or, as cofounder Joe Gebbia put it in a recent TED talk, "We bet our whole company on the hope that with the right design, people would be able to overcome the stranger danger bias."

It's the little things in Airbnb's interface that make all the difference, Alex Schleifer, head of design at Airbnb, tells Tech Insider.

Read more @ http://www.businessinsider.in/How-Airbnbs-design-tricks-make-us-trust-complete-strangers/articleshow/51828275.cms

NEW WEBSITE TARGETS ILLEGAL SUBLETS ON AIRBNB

A man who had his apartment rented out via Airbnb only to have a sex party hosted there, is trying to make sure the same doesn't happen to anyone else.

He's created a website called "Sublet Spy" to let landlords keep an eye on their tenants, and make sure the apartments don't end up on apartment-sharing sites.

Ari Teman's terrible experience with Airbnb prompted him to create a business that actually targets the company.

"If you list on Airbnb, we will find you, tell your landlord, and you may get evicted or end up on a tenant black list," Teman said.

In fact, Teman's on that black list.

Eyewitness News reported about how when he used Airbnb to list his own sublet in Chelsea, the person who rented from him threw an orgy that prompted the police to show up. It also prompted Teman's eviction.

 

"Certainly, I regret ever listing on Airbnb," Teman said.

Airbnb reimbursed him for property damages, but he says he didn't understand until after the fact that he was breaking the law by renting out his apartment.

Now he's a crusader. He launched sublet spy which uses technology to figure out who's offering an illegal sublet.

Read more @ http://abc7ny.com/realestate/new-website-targets-illegal-sublets-on-airbnb/1275814/

Airbnb just acquired a team of bitcoin and blockchain experts

Home-rental company Airbnb has “acqui-hired” the majority of the team behind ChangeCoin, a startup that runs a bitcoin-based micropayments service, according to four people with knowledge of the deal.

The alternative lodging site has been looking at a few bitcoin and blockchain startups, according to two sources, to study what the technology could do for its services. Companies like Uber and Airbnb are built on their ability to manage supply and demand, which could be aided by a powerful, open ledger system like blockchain.

Through a service called ChangeTip, ChangeCoin lets users send tiny amounts of money, or tips, over social networks including Twitter and Reddit. But Airbnb appears to only be interested in the talent behind the company: ChangeCoin is still shopping its intellectual property, sources said.

Read more @ http://qz.com/657246/airbnb-just-acquired-a-team-of-bitcoin-and-blockchain-experts/

Can Airbnb Book a Billion Nights a Year By 2025?

Airbnb’s growth over the past several years is impressive by pretty much any metric. That will likely continue, according to an analysis by financial services firm Cowen Group, Bloomberg reports.

Based on a survey of 1,400 U.S. hotel and short-term rental guests, Cowen analysts project Airbnb bookings will increase from around 79 million “room nights” this year to roughly half a billion annually in the next five years—and a full billion per year by 2025

Why so optimistic? A lot of data, both anecdotal and numerical, points toward big gains. For one, despite Airbnb’s global traction, a large pool of consumers still haven’t used the service. Only 10% of respondents surveyed had actually booked through Airbnb before.

Read more @ http://fortune.com/2016/04/11/airbnb-bookings-one-billion-a-year/

Airbnb Becomes Dormbnb

When Benjamin Capitano moved into his dorm as a sophomore at the King’s College, a tiny liberal arts college in Manhattan, he realized he’d been given a gift: a couch. So he listed his bed on Airbnb for $99.

“I’ve always had a knack for hospitality,” Mr. Capitano said. “I got us sheets and the little mini soaps and basically set up my dorm like a hotel.”

At Columbia University, New York University and the University of Pennsylvania ($1,000 a night for a room for two during the pope’s Philadelphia visit), students have been using Airbnb to offset the cost of college. The listings tend to omit one fact: that the bed is in student housing. (Potential guests, be sure to check pictures for telltale dorm furniture, and reviews: “It’s in a dorm…. I sort of felt creepy around all the kids,” said one guest at the School of Visual Arts.)

While most housing contracts prohibit rentals, lately colleges have been reviewing their policies to ensure they explicitly mention Airbnb.

The King’s College had only a guest policy. Mr. Capitano said he was careful to follow the rules and submit the right forms to his resident adviser — “conveniently, I was the R.A.” More than 20 guests stayed, a bounty he split with his two roommates.

Read more @ http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/education/edlife/airbnb-becomes-dormbnb.html?_r=0

Vancouver city council approves Airbnb motion to work on new regulations

Vancouver city council approved a motion Wednesday to ask city staff to come up with ways to control short-term housing rental services such as Airbnb.

City staff were told to study the impact those services have on rental properties, gather input from tourism and hotel industries, and look at what other cities are doing to regulate Airbnb.

A handful of residents also attended the meeting Wednesday to voice their concerns about Airbnb. Many want the city to crackdown on Airbnb hosts who treat their properties, especially multi-unit properties, like hotels.

• Airbnb affecting long-term rental housing in Vancouver, data suggests

"What I've encountered is that ten units that used to be occupied by renters and owners are now occupied by tourists. Those are ten units that used to be affordable rental," said Ulrike Rodrigues, who lives in an apartment on Broadway and Fraser Street.

Read more @ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-city-council-approves-airbnb-motion-to-work-on-new-regulations-1.3524555

Vancouver councillor eyes tighter rules for Airbnb and similar ventures

A Vancouver city councillor is eyeing regulation of home-sharing services like Airbnb, as the city’s rental vacancy rate hovers near zero.

Coun. Geoff Meggs wants to expand and accelerate a study already under way by city staff on the effect Airbnb and similar websites are having on the supply of rental housing.

“We’re going to an enormous amount of trouble to try to produce rental housing. We’re not doing it for tourist accommodation. We’re doing it for people who otherwise could not afford to live and work in the city of Vancouver,” Meggs said in an interview.

“I personally would like to see the rules toughened up to make sure that rental housing stayed rental.”

Vancouver is the latest jurisdiction to grapple with the rise of Airbnb and other websites that allow residents to rent out units or rooms to visitors for short-term stays.

Portland, Ore., has required people listing spaces on Airbnb to obtain a permit since 2014, while Quebec became the first province in Canada to introduce regulations last year, requiring regular users to get a certificate from the tourism ministry and pay a 3.5-per-cent lodging tax.

Vancouver bylaws prohibit rentals of less than 30 days outside designated hotel and bed and breakfast zones and without a business licence, which means most people renting units using Airbnb are likely doing so illegally, Meggs said.

Read more @ http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/rental-housing-is-for-residents-says-vancouver-councillor-eyeing-airbnb-rules

Airbnb users just want to feel like they’re staying with mom

All travelers really want from their accommodation is the feeling that they’re staying at their mother’s house

Airbnb Inc. said this week that women aged 60 and older are ranked as the best hosts on the home-sharing platform. Overall, the senior demographic is the fastest-growing category of hosts, as retirees look to bring in extra income and may have an empty house, the company said.

On the platform, hosts and users rate each other using a five-star system. Women in the 60 years old and up demographic have the highest percentage of five-star ratings. These listings are most often for a private room in a home, rather than an entire home, the study found.

Read more @ http://www.marketwatch.com/story/airbnb-users-just-want-to-feel-like-theyre-staying-with-mom-2016-04-01

Airbnb wants you to sleep with the fishes – well, sharks, to be precise

We’ve seen our fair share or unusual Airbnb listings, some a lot more welcoming than others, but sleeping underwater in a giant fish tank that houses no less than 35 sharks is an extraordinary feat that deserves some recognition. This marks the world’s first underwater Airbnb in Paris, where a giant 360-degree glass wall is the only thing to separate you and a friend from 3,000,000 liters of water. And, yes, 35 sharks.

DON’T MISS: There’s an addictive new YouTube channel dedicated solely to melting stuff

The room placed 10 meters under water, is found in the Paris Aquarium, The Telegraph reports. That’s certainly a great Airbnb location, but don’t get too excited. You won’t be able to rent it. Instead, you have to win your right to sleep in the circular bed that has a spectacular view.

In all, there will be three winners and their guests that will be able to use the unusual accommodation on April 11th, 12th and 13th. To do so, you have to win an essay contest. What you need to do is explain why you want to win, and do so no later than April 4th.

Read more @ http://bgr.com/2016/03/30/airbnb-underwater-shark-bedroom/

Priceline And Expedia Face The Might Of Airbnb

Priceline and Expedia will face competition on commission rates if Airbnb expands into hotel booking.

The present incumbents would not be able to move into Airbnb’s turf due to regulatory obstacles.

It is certain that cannibalization of Priceline and Expedia’s room night will be done by Airbnb.

Hotel chains might start favoring Airbnb as an alternative distribution channel.Priceline Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCLN) and Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) have faced growing concerns over their future growth potential due to the rise of Airbnb, Inc. (Private:AIRB). Currently, Airbnb is valued at $25.5 billion, which is more than EXPE's market cap of $16 billion and close to 40% of PCLN's market cap of $64 billion. In the third quarter of 2015, Airbnb sold 23.8 million room nights in comparison to 61.5 million by EXPE and 115.6 million by PCLN.

Both Priceline and Expedia have been able to survive in the highly competitive online travel agency (OTA) market by spending billions of dollars in the past few years to consolidate the market. The end result has been that 95% of the market is now in the hands of these two OTA behemoths. Both these OTAs currently charge commissions as high as 15% to 25% for bookings made on their platform.

Read more @ http://seekingalpha.com/article/3961264-priceline-expedia-face-might-airbnb

Airbnb opens to the world in Cuba: VIDEO

Cruise ships, hotel chains and commercial jets are all heading from the U.S. to Cuba for the first time in half a century. So it was only a matter of time before Airbnb got in on the action.

For about a year now, U.S. travelers have been able to book housing through Airbnb in Cuba. But now, the U.S. government has granted special permission to Airbnb to offer its services to the rest of the world, according to ABC News.

Starting on April 2, Airbnbs spread across 40 cities and towns in Cuba will open to the world, creating the company’s fastest-growing market. Some 4,000 houses in Cuba were added to Airbnb’s website in the past year, the company has reported.

It’s a great deal for locals, who earn an average of just $20 a day, as Airbnbs that host many Cubans are making $250 in U.S. currency per booking.

Read more @ http://therealdeal.com/2016/03/27/airbnb-opens-to-the-world-in-cuba-video/

Why an older woman may be your next Airbnb host

Airbnb has more than a million hosts and, because those hosts are scattered throughout more than 190 countries, it's a demographically diverse assortment. But within the United States, one category is growing faster than the others, and those who tick the boxes for that group are the most likely to receive five-star reviews from their guests.

Airbnb recently crunched its own numbers and discovered that senior hosts (defined as those who are 60-plus) are its fastest-growing age demographic in the U.S., and that 64% of those senior hosts are women. Airbnb writes:

"Across the U.S., senior women hosts are becoming an increasingly important part of the Airbnb community ... And increasing numbers of Airbnb hosts are empty-nesters who are sharing space in their homes to make ends meet and meet travelers from around the world."

In addition, women who are 60 and over receive the highest percentage of five-star reviews — more than any other combination of age and gender.

Read more @ http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/roadwarriorvoices/2016/03/31/airbnb-hosts-women-seniors/82462120/