
A Lone Data Whiz Is Fighting Airbnb – And Winning - kawera
https://backchannel.com/a-lone-data-whiz-is-fighting-airbnb-and-winning-7fd49513266e#.u33mpcr8b
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isubkhankulov
I'm mostly discussing NYC since the subjects of this article have joined the
fight against Airbnb but I think this is true in smaller markets as well.

Call me skeptical but I find it hard to believe that the guy behind "Inside
Airbnb" is without outside help from entrenched interests opposing Airbnb. His
website is obviously well made and his data is accurate but the cynic in me
believes that the hotel lobby is helping him or funding him one way or
another.

The lobby is funding political candidates in New York State from both
political parties and they're creating ridiculous anti-airbnb ad spots like
"Save the Moguls".
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yHRy7Hn2qg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yHRy7Hn2qg)

The hospitality industry has long held a stronghold in NYC due to short supply
and strong demand growth. Now, hotels are popping up everywhere, especially in
neighborhoods where Airbnb dominates, such as Brooklyn. The number of hotel
rooms in NYC was 70k in 2010 and has now risen to 100-110k. 85% of which are
in Manhattan. During the 9-10 month long peak season, hotel rooms go for
$300-400/night. Airbnb rooms are around half the price of a hotel room.

Another group widely cited as anti-Airbnb are the "fair housing" activists.
Their complaint is that Airbnb is driving rents up and pushing residents out
of the city. The reality is that if Airbnb is affecting the rental market, the
net effect is no more than $30-40 per month (rough calc: assuming 10k
apartments are taken off the market in NYC as per "Inside Airbnb", with an
non-stabilized rental supply of 900k units and avg rent 3k/unit). The housing
activists are doing next to nothing about that fact that virtually all new
residential real estate in Manhattan and Brooklyn is aimed at the luxury
market. A substantial portion of said market is being bought up by foreign
nationals looking to park their money. "Fair housing" activists sounds like a
false flag.

Paris & NYC are Airbnb's two biggest markets. Airbnb is fighting trench
warfare- the good news is that in many ways, they've already won the hearts
and wallets of their guests and hosts. The boutique hospitality market is
already looking for ways to mimic the feel of Airbnb rooms and attempting to
emulate "belonging" for travelers who are sick of generic looking hotel rooms.

The reality of course is somewhere in between the two points of view. In my
opinion, the lower price point Airbnb hosts provide tourists is expanding
demand to other economic levels and freeing up tourists' spending capital for
local businesses while in-country.

At the end of the day, even though the battle is not over, this is certainly a
win for the tech industry. Showing the world that technology can solve
problems that previously required strong regulations. More "sharing economy"
companies will continue chipping away at stagnant industries for generations
to come.

~~~
skewart
> The boutique hospitality market is already looking for ways to mimic the
> feel of Airbnb rooms and attempting to emulate "belonging" for travelers who
> are sick of generic looking hotel rooms.

The boutique hospitality market has been offering cozy, friendly, distinctive
places for people to stay since long before AirBnB was founded. And besides,
despite what the company's marketing department would have you believe, AirBnB
accommodations are mostly generic apartments stocked with Ikea furniture.
Sometimes they're creepily full of someone else's personal stuff. I've never
known anyone who rented an AirBnB in order to get a sense of "belonging" in a
new place.

From what I've seen, people stay at AirBnBs for two reasons: price and
location. You can often get a roof over your head - or a bigger roof under
which more people can sleep - for less money than at a hotel. Also, you often
can find AirBnBs in neighborhoods without many hotels - perhaps because hotels
have been banned in those areas.

Whatever effect AirBnB has had on housing markets in various cities - and I
suspect it's frequently exaggerated - I understand why people want to restrict
them. A steady stream of short-term guests staying in the apartment down the
hall can be a huge nuisance. You feel less safe in your own building with so
many complete strangers wandering through. Maybe you get woken up by partying
tourists playing loud music late at night. And maybe those tourists make a
mess in your building, which they see as more or less interchangeable with a
hotel. More than anything else though living next door to an AirBnB can be
annoying because it's just not something you signed up for when you moved in.
You thought all your neighbors would be part of the community, but then all of
a sudden the apartment down the hall turned into a commercial establishment.

Don't get me wrong. AirBnBs can be great. The company offers a totally
worthwhile service. And the hotel lobby has done some pretty darn sleazy
things to try to fight off AirBnB.

It's just that in stark contrast to, say, the taxi regulations that Lyft and
Uber have been pushing against a lot of the regulations around renting rooms
that AirBnB has run up against are perfectly understandable.

> More "sharing economy" companies will...

I realize you're using scare quotes, but still, I gotta say, the phrase
"sharing economy" is so absurdly misleading. Seeing it is like fingernails on
a chalkboard for me. Companies like AirBnB, and Lyft and Uber, have nothing to
do with sharing. They're marketplaces for small-scale commercial transactions.
I think a much better way to describe this overall phenomenon is the "access
economy" [0] which describes the effect of all these informal marketplaces
from the consumer's perspective.

[0] - [https://alexdanco.com/2015/02/02/the-rise-of-the-access-
econ...](https://alexdanco.com/2015/02/02/the-rise-of-the-access-economy)

