From
Berlin to Barcelona; will Airbnb ruin our most loved cities?
The
accommodation website has become so successful that hotels are losing
business and tourist sites face being ruined
Jamie Doward
Sunday 26 June 2016
00.05 BST
To use the industry
jargon, it is the ultimate “disruptor”. Airbnb, the website that
allows homeowners around the world to rent out their spare rooms, has
had a seismic impact on the travel market.
Hotel chains are
reportedly feeling the squeeze as the US upstart – which has
attracted $2bn in funding in less than a decade – eats into their
business model by offering travellers the opportunity to “live like
a local” and “belong anywhere” in one of the two million rooms
and properties that are listed on its site.
The savvy
exhortations, which feature in slick adverts on bus stops and
billboards across the world’s cities, have helped Airbnb expand at
a seemingly relentless pace. Already operating in 191 countries and
34,000 cities, analysts at financial services company Cowen & Co
predict that, by 2020, Airbnb hosts will be taking 500 million
bookings a night, rising to a staggering one billion by 2025.
It is a truly global
phenomenon. Yet, just as Uber’s attempts to shake up the taxi
market has met resistance, Airbnb finds itself a victim of its own
success as cities and countries wake up to the fact that the cute new
kid on the block has been transformed into an 800lb gorilla.
The latest salvo was
fired last week when Mark Tanzer, chief executive of the Association
of British Travel Agents, warned that the popularity of companies
such as Airbnb was leading to such an influx of visitors that there
was a danger that some of Europe’s most attractive historic cities
would be ruined. “If they can’t get around the city you are going
to lose value from tourism, even if the numbers are going up,” he
said. “Overcrowding in key destinations is becoming a pressing
issue. Without controls, we know tourism can kill tourism.”
In the UK, more than
three million people have used the site, while 52,500 people have
opened their homes to strangers. A typical host can expect to earn
£2,000 in return for renting out a room for 46 nights a year.
Until recently,
Airbnb’s rise has been largely embraced by politicians and
governments, who were quick to hail it as an exemplar of the “sharing
economy”. George Osborne unveiled plans in his last budget that
will allow hosts on sites such as Airbnb to earn £1,000 in
additional untaxed income by sharing their homes. In March, in a sign
that it has truly come of age, Airbnb won a contract to provide a
reported 20,000 rooms for this year’s Olympic Games in Rio de
Janeiro.
It’s not bad for a
company that started life in 2008, when its three founders rented out
air mattresses in their San Francisco flat as a way of making money.
It is now one of the largest online global travel brands and only
Priceline, Expedia, Ctrip, and Marriott drive more online room
bookings, according to Cowen & Co.
Luca Florio, an
enthusiastic Airbnb host, began using the service three years ago to
rent out a spare room in the flat he shares with his wife in the
centre of Florence. He said: “We saw it as a chance for cultural
exchanges, a chance to talk to people from different countries. It
was only after three months that we appreciated it could also be a
way to make money.”
Florio said he and
his wife could rent out their spare room every night if they wished,
but he tries to limit it to 20 nights a month during peak season
because it “is not just a business, we want to be free”. Guests
come from all over the world: in addition to Spain, France, Austria
and Switzerland, Florio regularly hosts visitors from the UK, the US,
Australia, India, South America and China. “It’s a kind of
alternative tourism, a new opportunity for tourists to gain a
different view of Florence,” he said.
Florio appears to be
a typical Airbnb host, someone using a valuable resource – a spare
room in one of the world’s most loved cities – to make a little
money, while learning more about people from other countries and
cultures. This is certainly how the company likes to portray itself –
a platform that allows the little guy to build up a complementary
industry, one that increases the size of the hospitality pie rather
than takes a slice from existing businesses.
Airbnb points out
that almost 900,000 guests used it to visit Barcelona last year,
spending some €740m – nearly six times higher than in 2013. Three
quarters of the city’s hosts have incomes below the national
average – evidence, the company says, that its business model can
expand the economic benefits of tourism to more people and more
areas.
When Airbnb arrived
in Barcelona in 2009, almost 80% of bookings were in the Old Town.
Today, in contrast, almost 70% of bookings are for listings outside
the Old Town.
Tanzer’s comments
about Airbnb’s expansion having a negative impact on tourism were
fiercely rejected by the company. In a statement to the Observer, it
said: “It is disappointing – but not surprising – to see
attacks on new forms of travel that put money in the pockets of local
residents and support small businesses outside hotel districts.
Airbnb spreads guests and benefits to more families, communities and
local businesses – many that haven’t previously benefited from
tourism.”
But the Airbnb
phenomenon that is driving record numbers of tourists to certain
destinations is not just irking the more traditional holiday
operators, it is also inviting closer analysis of the company’s
business model.
A report examining
Airbnb’s operations in the US, published this year by Penn State
University, identified the rise of the mega-operator – people who
rent out three or more Airbnb units. The report found that “a
growing number of hosts were using the Airbnb platform to operate an
unregulated, full-time business. Nearly 30% of Airbnb revenue is
derived from this group of full-time hosts. They are becoming bigger
and more prominent.”
Other organisations
have expressed similar concerns. “There is strong evidence that far
from simply facilitating the use of empty spare rooms, Airbnb
actually enables landlords to bypass government regulation and in
effect run illegal hostels,” Julian Ledger, chief executive of YHA
Australia, told a parliamentary inquiry.
Airbnb vigorously
rejects these fears, pointing out that it is quick to take action
against any hosts who are suspected of breaking the law and trying to
avoid the taxman.
Earlier this month,
it released data showing that since it began it has collected $85m in
tax revenue for cities worldwide. Late last year, it unveiled its
Community Compact, a series of pledges to “treat cities
individually, help our community pay its fair share of tourist and
hotel taxes, build an open and transparent home sharing community and
promote responsible home sharing to help make cities stronger”.
The initiative came
ahead of a sensitive time: Wall Street expects Airbnb to float on the
stock market this year, a move that could see it valued at almost
$26bn.
But not all
governments and authorities buy into the home-sharing concept. San
Francisco has passed a law that permits hosts to rent out properties
for only up to 90 days a year. Berlin prohibits users from renting
out entire properties, while Iceland has proposed rules that will
force some home sharers to register as businesses.
Now, in what could
prove the most significant threat to Airbnb’s business model to
date, the New York state senate and assembly has just unveiled laws
that would bar New Yorkers from advertising their homes on its
platform.
“If it becomes
law, this legislation would threaten thousands of low- and
middle-income New Yorkers with fines of up to $7,500 simply for
listing that they would like to share their homes,” Airbnb fumed.
Given that it is a
fledgling company yet to establish its bona fides, analysts suggest
resistance is only to be expected. But, some day soon, Airbnb may
have to face up to who is benefiting from its seemingly relentless
expansion.
“There are people
who do it just for business,” said Florio. “They buy three or
four flats in the city and it’s too much.” Such people, he
suggested, were damaging the complexion of historic city centres.
“These people don’t care about Florentians, just about tourists.”
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