Airbnb has been on a steady rise since its start in 2008. Standing for "Air Bed and Breakfast," it's an online marketplace and hospitality service that allowed users to either arrange home rentals for themselves or offer them; it receives commissions from every booking.
However, for a while now, the company along with other home rental companies like Booking.com have been under scrutiny for the amount of revenue they take away from hotels and other travel sites.
The first global conference on the debate on the renting of private homes was held in New York City last week. It was called ReformBnB and it was held in order to challenge the best practices in regulating the increasing number of home-sharing businesses like Airbnb and Booking.com.
It all began when French President Emmanuel Macron was tempted to sign an act that will threaten serious penalties on the individuals and big businesses that partake in the rentals. There will be penalties up to 5,000 euros for hosts and 12,500 euros for the companies that operate the homes without a government-issued license.
Fun fact: Paris is Airbnb's biggest market with about 60,000 listings.
However, Airbnb was not ready to back down from this fight, they had quite the retaliation tactic ready for those that attended the conference. They hired a large LED truck that played a video ad on a loop whilst parked on the same city block as the hotel hosting the conference.
The ad? It was, of course, an expose on the big hotel industry. "The big hotel industry made $77 billion last year. While taking over $5 billion in tax subsidies... But we can't earn extra money on Airbnb? Paid for by Airbnb."
Now, that's the pettiest thing I've ever read and I am all here for it.
There were even pro-Airbnb protestors (who were also hosts of their own Airbnb's) outside of the hotel repeating the ad word for word.
Overall, the "short-term rentals" have started to disrupt the companies of city officials, hotel owners and operators and even rent-control advocates.
A report was released by New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer that stated that Airbnb was singlehandedly responsible for an almost 10% increase in the rent throughout NYC between 2009 and 2016.
Continuing the petty attacks, Airbnb spent almost $1 million on TV ads alone berating the Comptroller. They were classified as "bullies."
There's a new law that will be put into effect in February that will require platforms to hand over information about every short-term rental in the city. In an attempt to put a stop to it before it was put into effect, Airbnb (along with others) sued the city of Manhattan.
Overall, this debate is far from over and Airbnb is expected to put up a fight for as long as it takes.
What do you think should be done?
