The Airbnb Public Policy Blog

We at Airbnb are fortunate to constantly see the often life-changing impact experienced by our hosts and their guests. The stories of economic and personal empowerment, community, and memorable experiences go on and on. So we know beyond doubt that Airbnb is making families and local communities stronger.

We’ve heard from countless hosts who occasionally rent out their homes using Airbnb and use the extra money they earn to help make ends meet, to spend more time with family, or to start a new business and create jobs for others in their communities. And we’ve heard from travelers who have told us how Airbnb helped them see new neighborhoods and visit local businesses in cities around the world.

But anecdotes and personal observation are only part of the picture. Over the past year, we have also worked hard to study and quantify the overall impact Airbnb can have on communities around the world.

Last year, we released a study examining Airbnb’s positive economic impact in San Francisco. Today, we released a similar study for Paris. Both of these reports make it abundantly clear that Airbnb is having an incredible impact not just on the lives of hosts and guests, but on neighborhoods and cities as well.

Highlights from these first two reports cover just one year and include the following.

Airbnb produces significant economy benefits

• Airbnb generated approximately $240 million in economic activity in Paris
• Airbnb generated approximately $56 million in economic activity in San Francisco

Guests on Airbnb stay longer and spend more

• The average Paris hotel guest visits for 2.3 nights and spends $584 during their stay. The average Paris Airbnb guest, on the other hand, visits for 5.2 nights and spends $1,151 during their stay.
• The average San Francisco hotel guest visits for 3.5 days and spends $840. The average San Francisco Airbnb guest visits for 5.5 days and spends $1,045.

Airbnb hosts rent out the homes they live in

• 83 percent of Airbnb hosts in Paris use Airbnb to rent the home they live in.
• 90 percent of Airbnb hosts in San Francisco use Airbnb to rent the home they live in.\

Airbnb hosts use their income to make ends meet

• 56 percent of Airbnb hosts in San Francisco said they use their Airbnb income to help pay their mortgage or rent.
• 46 percent of Airbnb hosts in Paris said they use income for essential living expenses such as rent and mortgage payments.

Airbnb brings tourists to new neighborhoods

• 72 percent of Airbnb properties in San Francisco are located outside the central hotel district.
• 70 percent of Airbnb properties in Paris are located outside the main hotel districts.

The San Francisco study was conducted in 2012 and the Paris study was conducted in 2013. The Airbnb community has only gotten bigger since the studies were conducted, so we expect these numbers will increase as Airbnb continues to have a positive economic impact in cities around the world

For more information, check out the full San Francisco Economic Impact Study and the full Paris Economic Impact Study.

Last week, we saw again that when a city takes the time to study the potential benefits of allowing residents to occasionally host travelers in their own homes, reasonable policies follow.  We were excited to see that the City of Amsterdam proposed new, progressive policies that clarify how local hosts can rent out their homes on Airbnb and that show the City’s commitment to promoting the growth of the sharing economy.

Because Airbnb and other sharing economy companies are still so new, we often face a lot of misconceptions and misinformation as we begin dialogues with governments around the world.  Often, the first round of stories about short-term rentals in a given city focuses on illegal hotels, and it can be hard to break through that story to talk about the truth of who our hosts are—regular residents helping to make ends meet by occasional renting out their own homes.

That is why we are so grateful that the City of Amsterdam embarked on its own study of the situation, and concluded that a line can indeed be drawn between unwanted illegal hotels on the one hand, and the amazing economic benefits created when regular residents are allowed the freedom to rent out their own homes once in awhile.

The Amsterdam City Board has now made it clear that Amsterdam residents can occasionally rent out their own homes under certain conditions.  This policy, and comments from the City of Amsterdam, recognize the positive impact that the Airbnb community can have on its city. Here’s a translation of what the City said:

A phenomenon like holiday rentals fits a city that values freedom of choice and connecting to the rest of the world. It also makes better use of the housing stock, can be a touristic economic stimulus, and apparently fills a need of today’s tourists. Because of this, apartments are not empty during absence and the city’s tourist offering is more diverse. It also fits the strong development of social media and the tourist preferences to “live like a local.”

Amsterdam residents, according to research, agree that there should be a place for holiday rental, if it is properly designed. Given the worldwide trend, it is important that Amsterdam, as one of the most important tourist cities in Europe, keeps up with this development.

These rules are good news for families in Amsterdam who use Airbnb to share their city with travelers from around the world. The rules recognize that our hosts are local residents who use Airbnb to help make ends meet—not hotel operators, as some like to suggest. And they come after a series of positive, productive conversations between our team and leaders in Amsterdam who know that Airbnb is contributing to the local economy and making Amsterdam stronger. Leaders in Amsterdam took the time to learn about Airbnb and the sharing economy, and the more they learned, the more they saw how this activity is adding to the fabric of one of Europe’s great cities.

We applaud the City of Amsterdam for this positive step forward. We know there is more work to do, and we look forward to continuing to work with the city to ensure the Airbnb community continues to thrive, and the sharing economy can flourish.

Two weeks ago, I wrote about Nigel Warren, one of our New York hosts who was fined $2,400 by an administrative law judge. I stated our belief that this ruling was absolutely wrong on the law, and bad for New York.

I am pleased to report that we will assist Nigel and his landlord as they appeal this ruling. We may lose again before we prevail, but we intend to fight this ruling until justice is done.

Airbnb was not a party to the case (in fact, even Nigel was not a party to the case at first—it was his landlord who was cited). As a result, we could not appeal on our own, even though we did submit legal arguments. But now that Nigel and his landlord have agreed to let us support their appeal, we are in this for the long haul.

This case is very unusual, so we are still learning. Although the City often wins these cases at both the level Nigel just completed and the first appeals level (the Environmental Control Board, or ECB), we continue to believe that Nigel and his landlord are correct on the law and that the decision should be reversed. We know the road at first will be hard, so even if the City prevails at the ECB level, we will assist in the appeal to New York trial courts and beyond, if necessary.

This decision could not have more clearly shown that the New York law needs to be clarified and should be made more fair for regular New Yorkers who occasionally rent out their own homes to help make ends meet. In 2010, the State of New York passed a law designed to crack down on bad actors that operate illegal hotels—a goal we all share. Unfortunately, the 2010 law also had the unintended consequence of impacting regular New Yorkers.

Everyone agrees that average New Yorkers were not the target of the 2010 law, and I am pleased to note that recently, legislation was introduced in the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate to exempt from the 2010 law those individuals who are renting out their own homes. This is a great step towards fairness in New York, and we look forward to continuing this important discussion with legislators in the weeks ahead.

Since my last post, we got a lot of questions about New York law and what we plan to do for individual hosts.

While we did intervene in this case on a important point of law that seems clear to us, we cannot provide individual legal advice, and every case has its own specific facts. The laws governing different buildings in New York and individual rules put in place by co-op boards or leases vary. That is why we ask hosts in our 35,000 cities around the world to check the law in their own city and their leases as well.

But know one thing: we are committed to clearing the path as best we can for our hosts and the travelers who visit them. We will continue to fight Nigel’s ruling, and we continue to fight for a fairer, clearer New York law.

We know that by stepping up and fighting for Nigel and our community, we have made ourselves a target and will now face attacks in the press and from people who do not understand who our community really is. But the amazing activity that is happening in New York and other cities around the world is worth fighting for.

The sharing economy is here to stay, and so are we.

Earlier this week, an administrative law judge in New York issued a new interpretation of the “shared space” exception to New York’s short-term rental restrictions, fining an Airbnb host named Nigel Warren $2,400 for hosting on Airbnb.

The headlines are dramatic: Airbnb Is Illegal! But we want you to know that these headlines don’t tell the true story.

This was one court decision that we strongly disagree with. We believe it is a misinterpretation of “shared space,” and it does not mean every Airbnb listing in New York is illegal. We are not going anywhere.

New York has been important to Airbnb since the beginning—and we are more dedicated than ever to advocating for clearer, fairer laws that allow our hosts to share their own homes with guests legally, as a force for good in the city.

The headlines may be overstating the case, such cases are rare, and Nigel won on four out of the five counts against him. But that is little comfort to a host who was simply renting out his own apartment on an occasional basis and now finds himself on the hook for exorbitant fines.

What makes this decision most troubling is the manner in which this administrative law judge interpreted a fairly clear provision in the New York law making “shared spaces” legal.

We believed, and still believe, that as long as a host is present during a stay, the stay is legal. That is why we intervened in this case. But the administrative law judge used some fairly tortured reasoning to come up with a brand new test, which essentially implies that a stay might be legal only if the host and guest intend to form a relationship or friendship of some kind.

This could be considered good news, since so many Airbnb guests and hosts do form relationships throughout the booking and visiting process, and afterwards. And there were a number of specifics that made this case unique, which means it may not be a predictor of future cases.

But put simply, this decision is wrong on the law, and bad for New York. The laws in New York and around the world are confusing and often contradictory, but we intervened in this case because this was the one area of the law that seemed most clear. Therefore, we are examining our options to help appeal this case on Nigel’s behalf.
As always, we encourage all of our hosts to understand and obey their local laws. But this judge’s decision demonstrates how difficult is for hosts and even companies like ours to adequately understand laws that were not meant to apply to regular people hosting to make ends meet.

And more importantly, this decision makes it even more critical that New York law be clarified to make sure regular New Yorkers can occasionally rent out their own homes. There is overwhelming agreement that occasional hosts like Nigel Warren were not the target of the 2010 law, but that agreement provides little comfort to the handful of people, like Nigel, who find themselves targeted by overzealous enforcement officials.

In 2010, New York rightly set out to crack down on illegal hotel operators. Many of these operators were converting large numbers of affordable housing units into unsafe hotels—putting lives in danger, and clearly circumventing regulations governing hotels.

But as so often happens, a regulatory initiative that began with a noble goal ended up capturing more than just the bad guys. When the 2010 law was drafted, few people were aware that Airbnb even existed. As a result, the growing community of Airbnb hosts in New York—regular people using the income from Airbnb to pay the bills—simply had no voice in the legislative process until it was too late. Legislators really only heard one side of the story.

As so many of those same legislators have made clear since then, the target of the laws was never intended to be these individual residents. These are not illegal hotel operators trying to make a quick buck. These are people like Maria, who has used her income to work less and spend more time with her husband. Or Emmett, who still keeps in touch with the friends he’s met from Europe, Asia, and Africa. Or Evelyn, who saved her home from foreclosure with the money she makes from Airbnb.

More than half of our hosts in New York have said that the income they earn through Airbnb has helped them stay in their homes. These individuals respect the people around them and love their city. In Airbnb, they have found a service that allows them to screen out bad guests and select only those with good reputations.

These people are renting out the homes they live in, so they have every incentive to choose guests carefully and protect their homes and neighborhoods from damage, noise, and danger. And that’s exactly what they do.

This is a debate about whether to allow regular people throughout New York to open their own homes to travelers and help pay their own bills while doing so. Many times, our hosts are simply renting out a couch or a spare room. Or maybe they rent out their entire homes once in a while to go on vacation or travel for work.

These are not illegal hotels. These are amazing stories within a core community of hosts and travelers adding to the diverse fabric of New York.

It is time to fix this law and protect hosts who rent out their own homes from time to time. In New York, 87% of Airbnb hosts list a home they live in. They are average New Yorkers trying to make ends meet, not illegal hotels that should be subject to the 2010 law. That’s why we have been working with city and state leaders on potential legislative solutions that will help New Yorkers share their space and bring travelers to neighborhoods throughout all five boroughs.

We will keep you posted on those efforts, and we are hopeful that this case will provide the final catalyst for lawmakers to fix a well-intentioned but overly broad effort to stop illegal hotels.

New York is incredibly important to Airbnb, and I am proud of our efforts there.  

A few weeks ago, we partnered with Mayor Bloomberg to create a special page on our site where hosts in the New York City area could offer space in their homes for free to victims of Hurricane Sandy. More than 1,400 free listings were offered by Airbnb hosts — an incredible display of generosity from our community.

We know that our community faces challenges in New York as well.  We recently received a number of inquiries about an article in the New York Times that highlighted a host who was cited for a violation of New York’s short term rental laws. While this host escaped penalty for the alleged violations, the case did raise an important issue: short term rental laws around the world vary widely, and it is important for hosts to check their local laws and individual leases before listing on our site. 

Although our New York hosts have generally not been targeted for enforcement, we are nevertheless actively discussing the laws of New York with State and City officials.

We believe strongly in the power of carefully crafted legislation to prevent harmful behavior while protecting those who are contributing positively to a city’s fabric.

In particular, we believe that that New York can and should pass legislation that would weed out the truly bad actors who disrupt their neighborhoods while protecting our core community. 

Cities are beginning to understand the benefits that Airbnb brings — even where current law is over-restrictive. 

Our efforts in New York are not unique. We are increasingly engaging with governments around the world to address the patchwork of laws governing the activity of our community. In some cities, short term rentals are always OK. In others, they are not. But in many cities, laws are confusing and unclear; sometimes, even to the governments that created them. 

It’s not always easy to know how a given city official or legislative body may interpret a law on the books. Our goal is to work towards a more consistent, fair, and progressive set of laws so that the amazing community of travelers and hosts who use Airbnb every single day can continue to flourish.

If you are interested in short term rental laws in New York, you can find more information at the New York Rental Reform website.   

If you’d like to become involved in our discussions in your neighborhood, please email our team at policy@airbnb.com. 

My name’s David, and I’m Airbnb’s Head of Global Public Policy.  

I recently joined the Airbnb team because I was inspired by the amazing experiences the members of our growing community are creating for each other every day.

The connections happening on Airbnb empower people around the world to achieve a richer quality of life. Half of the hosts we’ve surveyed say they depend on the extra income gained from Airbnb to pay their rent or mortgage.  Our guests bring economic and social activity to underserved neighborhoods, and the data tells us that cities benefit enormously from what our guests bring.

We also understand that we have a responsibility to keep our community informed about what Airbnb is doing in cities and neighborhoods around the world.  So on these pages, we will try to keep you informed about important public policy debates surrounding what we do. We will also ask for your local knowledge, advice, and suggestions as we work together to clarify or improve laws around the world that sometimes make it more difficult for our users to provide great local experiences to travelers.

Along the way, we will also ask for your patience and understanding as well. I know we haven’t satisfied everyone’s desire for information in the past, and we will inevitably be unable to please everyone in the future. We sometimes just won’t be able to comment publicly regarding ongoing regulatory discussions or changing laws, and I am sorry about that. 

I am hopeful, though, that with this blog and your participation, you will at least know much more about our current work and what we are doing every day to advocate on your behalf.  And as we keep you updated, we’d also appreciate your feedback and suggestions so that we can always strive to do better. 

After all, your success is our success.