Hospitable Airbnb Giant and Offer F

Yesterday, the third of November, residents of San Francisco voted in favor of Proposition F — an initiative that helped seriously undermine the $ 25 billion Airbnb business. Residents of the hometown of the company voted to limit the short-term rental housing to 75 days a year and for Airbnb to take responsibility to monitor and delete violator proposals on its website. But the project failed.

In the heart of Silicon Valley, the community of homeowners, a group of district activists and tenants ’rights activists have collected more than 20,000 signatures to say" we have had enough. " Airbnb has spent over $ 8 million on the oppositional Proposition F campaign. For comparison, the other side collected a little more than 350 thousand dollars.

What was the cause of popular unrest?

The problem is that Airbnb does not have normal control over who rents accommodation and which guests come to their homes. Neighbors unexpectedly find themselves on the same site with a whole “hotel” where completely strangers come, who find themselves in close proximity to children, the elderly and other vulnerable groups of the population. Yes, such a "circulation" occurs in ordinary hotels, as a rule, they are located in a specially designated area.
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Who actually rents a home? There is a sharp discrepancy in the way the company positions itself with what we see in reality. Airbnb draws the image of "ordinary people" who own real estate, who agree to rent out their "extra" rooms to tourists in order to earn an extra penny in this difficult time. These people are the face of the company. But what could be wrong here?

Here's what is wrong: in cities such as New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, the level of commercial activities related to Airbnb has increased, which has nothing to do with "ordinary people" renting empty rooms. The rooms are rented by professional homeowners, who remove housing from the local market, which suffers from a shortage of rental properties, and make it affordable exclusively for tourists.

In 2014, Erik Schneiderman, the Attorney General of the State of New York, conducted an investigation, which revealed that about 40% of the $ 451 million Airbnb revenue comes only from New York and those who have at least three offers for site.

Data analyst Tom Slea gathered information from the Airbnb site in September of this year and found that of the 30,268 housing offers in New York, 44% of the guests choose hosts who own several apartments. Various studies show that a third of rental housing in San Francisco belongs to people with two or more offers on Airbnb - and they bring in more than 40% of the profits. These are not just “ordinary citizens” who rent a room in their apartment - few people can afford to buy such a quantity of real estate. These are professionals.

Under political pressure last year, Airbnb began deleting the accounts of some particularly hard-core violators, but recent data show that the situation has not changed. Through its activities (and inaction on the part of control), Airbnb essentially deprives local residents of affordable housing.