Airbnb Spends $8 Million to Defeat Proposition F
Two weeks ago, we shared some of the hilariously patronizing ads Airbnb had installed on San Francisco billboards and bus stations, after the city finally forced Airbnb hosts and guests to start paying hotel tax:
Dear @Airbnb These passive-aggressive bus kiosk ads are *not cool* No love, the librarians https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100700506082939&set=a.626401026109.2203111.94803916&type=3&theater … pic.twitter.com/Lf3TCAYYbw
Airbnb apologized almost instantly — “It was the wrong tone and we apologize to anyone who was offended.” — and then turned its full attention to the next battle: San Francisco’s Proposition F.
Essentially, San Francisco wanted to limit Airbnb rentals to 75 days a year, and to require greater transparency from both Airbnb and its users. If Prop F passed, Airbnb would be required to remove unregistered short-term rental listings from its site (or be fined), and both Airbnb and its hosts would have to file reports on their rental activity.
But Airbnb fought back. To quote TechCrunch:
Spending north of $8 million to defeat the measure, Airbnb’s effort has blanketed local TV stations with ads at a ratio of 100-to-1 against Proposition F. This weekend, campaigners went door-to-door to “reverse trick-or-treat” by handing out adult coloring fliers and Halloween-themed crayons in addition to the 236,413 door attempts, 226,597 phone calls and 2,016 window signs posted as of Sunday.
Here’s one of those ads, courtesy of Gizmodo:
And yes, Prop F lost. Airbnb won. It’ll be able to continue listing unregistered rental properties in its interface, and San Francisco Airbnb hosts will continue to be able to run properties as full-time rental units.
How much do San Francisco hosts earn from these rentals? TechCrunch used data from Airdna to suggest that a one-bedroom unit, for example, could bring its host anywhere between $2,542-$5,255 a month. The disparity is because “Airbnb looks like any other two-sided marketplace business — a cohort of power sellers dominates.”
TechCrunch added: “Each unit removed from the housing stock would have a net negative economic impact of a $250,000 to $300,000 loss to the city.”
So there you go. The so-called sharing economy changes things at both the individual and the city level. Meanwhile, Airbnb, which earns money every time a host rents a property, has the funds and the leverage to make sure it can keep taking its share.
Because in the sharing economy, the entity with the largest share controls everything.
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