Airbnb, the online peer-to-peer property rental market, says its guests spent $56 million in San Francisco over a recent 12 month period, with the money supplementing income of people in need and benefitting neighborhoods that get relatively little out of hotel tourism.
The release of the analysis comes as a city task force is studying how it should regulate Airbnb’s business, and those of other so-called “sharing economy” companies, which typically enable people to connect directly through online exchanges.
“This study shows that Airbnb is having a huge positive impact -- not just on the lives of our guests and hosts, but also on the local neighborhoods they visit and live in,” said Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky.
The report says that Airbnb-related activity does not come at the expense of the city’s hotels, which have seen occupancy rates rise in recent years despite Airbnb’s stupendous growth.
“Everyone’s worried about what Airbnb is going to do to hotels,” said Molly Turner, who works on public policy for Airbnb. “It’s clear we’re not hurting the hotels at all.”
That conclusion was received with some caution by Kevin Carroll, executive director of the Hotel Council of San Francisco, who said the data Airbnb used came from an up period for the city’s tourism industry.
“You’re looking at a strong market already, and I think it might be different if the market wasn’t strong. That’s the part where I’d like to look at more research and see how that would play out,” Carroll said.
Carroll nevertheless hailed the evidence that Airbnb is spreading money widely around town.
“It’s definitely demonstrating how many neighborhoods in the city are being positively affected,” he said.
Mayor Ed Lee, who has been extremely supportive of technology companies, praised Airbnb.
“We know that the sharing economy has had a positive impact on our thriving local economy and on our residents and small businesses throughout San Francisco,” Lee said. “Companies like Airbnb have partnered in promoting our diverse neighborhoods and neighborhood small businesses to visitors from around the world."
Written by HRA Advisors of New York City, Airbnb’s report said a total of 72 percent of Airbnb properties in San Francisco are located outside the central hotel corridor, and more than 60 percent of Airbnb guest-spending -- some $43.1 million from April 2011 to May 2012 -- went to businesses in the neighborhoods in which guests stayed.
One surprising finding was that Airbnb guests stay longer and spend a bit more than hotel guests, with average trips lasting 5.5 days and spending of $1,045 on food, shopping and transportation, compared to hotel guests who stay an average of 3.5 days and spend $840.
Carroll said the numbers looked right to him, but he pointed out that hotel guests spend more per day.
Supporting Airbnb’s anecdotal contention that many of its users really need the income from renting out part or all of their homes, the report also says that 45 percent of Airbnb hosts used rental income on bills.
Sixty percent of Airbnb hosts in San Francisco are at or below the city’s median household income level, Turner said.
The economic impact study is the first but likely not the last that Airbnb will do to gauge its contribution to local economies, said Turner, who is an expert on urban planning as it relates in particular to tourism. Airbnb wanted to start with the city it calls home, which is also one of its top markets, she said.
Founded in 2008, Airbnb lists properties in more than 30,000 cities and 192 countries.