Inside Airbnb is a mission driven activist project that provides
@Airbnb
data & advocates for protection of residential communities: by
@murrayscox
since ‘15
BREAKING:
@Airbnb
short-term listings (STR's) in
#NYC
drop by 70% after enforcement of the city's Registration Law starts.
In August there were 22,434 STR's but only 6,841 on September 5, a drop of 15,593 or 70%.
BREAKING: Short-term rentals (str's) on
@Airbnb
in
#NYC
fell another 53% down to only 3,227 on Oct 1. In September, after a massive drop the previous month, there were still 6,841 str's... but another 3,614 were lost in the last month. 1/5
New York City Council today voted 42-5 on a law which will require short-term rental hosts to register and platforms like
@Airbnb
to only accept transactions on registered properties, effectively wiping out illegal hotels in homes, once the law goes into effect in 12 months. 1/7
Did you know, that the majority of
@Airbnb
listings in the U.S. are run by commercial operators, some with thousands of listings? These are hundreds of thousands of homes taken out of our housing markets in cities and towns everywhere. 1/8
On eve of
@Airbnb
IPO, I release report detailing how most of their listings are illegal in major cities: Berlin (80%), Paris (70%) and NYC(85%). I approach 3 U.S. news agencies to see if they want to write about it? No.
Yet written about all over Europe
1/7 More data Inside
#Airbnb
's response to tragic fire in
#Montreal
.
Between March 16 and March 29, Airbnb listings dropped by 7,302 (-51%). Most were culled in the STR category (<31 days), but likely 1,695 shifted to LTR category by host/Airbnb.
There is so much in this story that shows how wrong
@Airbnb
is, how their business model depends on commercial hosts and scamlords, all to the detriment of tenants, housing and our communities. Great reporting
@ricochet_en
and
@ZacharyKamel
EXCLUSIVE: We identified one of the largest AirBnB ghost hotel networks in Montreal, and spoke to all parties for this exposé.
It’s a case study in a popular new property scam making owners and entrepreneurs rich — and leaving long-term tenants homeless.
In Toronto from 1st January 2021, short-term rental platforms like
@Airbnb
must only show listings that are licensed. So far compliance rate for Entire apartments on
@Airbnb
is 4.7%, i.e. 95% of listings are illegal.
#platformaccountability
@Fairbnbcanada
Barcelona proposes to ban Private Room
@Airbnb
rentals. Cities are on a journey of stricter regulations and more effective enforcement. via
@CityLab
@FeargusOSull
Starting today, we are banning “party houses” and we are redoubling our efforts to combat unauthorized parties and get rid of abusive host and guest conduct, including conduct that leads to the terrible events we saw in Orinda. Here is what we are doing:
An open call to any laid off
@Airbnb
employees. If you came across evidence that provides evidence of the systematic evasion of laws and misleading of governments that Airbnb relied on as a foundation of its business model, please dm me or email whistleblower
@insideairbnb
.com
We have great people leaving Airbnb, and I think other companies will love them as much as I do. If you are hiring, reach out to me at brian.chesky
@airbnb
.com and our team will connect you.
Consider how
@Airbnb
was able to get 100k homes for their
#COVID19
response (most for a fee), and then 1M listings for their new desperate long-term rental facelift. All of those listings should have been on the long-term market all along.
#letAirbnbFail
Excited to be part of international round Table organised by the the city of Paris associating Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona and Amsterdam. Together they have decided to strengthen their collaboration and move towards alliance of cities to invent common answers against
@Airbnb
& co
La Ville de Paris organisait aujourd’hui une table ronde internationale associant Lisbonne, Madrid, Barcelone et Amsterdam. Ensemble, nous avons décidé de renforcer notre collaboration et d’avancer vers une alliance des villes pour inventer des réponses communes.
Would love to know what data
@Airbnb
is sharing with the European Commission? Does it include how many homes are illegally rented; how many cities
@Airbnb
is helping hosts break the law; and how many families are being displaced because a host prefers to rent a home to tourists?
Platforms like
@Airbnb
have taken 1,000's+ of homes out of the housing market all over the world. Join
@make_theshift
and other housing activists as we fight for the right to housing, including a call to regulate short-term rentals.
#TheShiftDirectives
This will go down as the defining end of
@Airbnb
: still in the middle (and possibly beginning) of a deadly pandemic, with essential social distancing, they are desperately boasting about having MORE listings, and predicting MORE travel in other people’s homes.
Incredible public data advocacy by
@rohanarezel
to win this order forcing the City of Vancouver to disclose names of hosts and addresses of short-term rentals. The order goes into great detail and thought whether it's private info: It isn't.
“Just How Over Is NYC Airbnb? These Maps Offer a Hint” by
@heathertal
of
@Slate
“Virtually all private short-term rentals are now illegal and difficult to list”
Before you stay in an
@Airbnb
in another city or town, do you know how you might be affecting the residents there? Does everyone have affordable housing? Do you care?
What does sustainable tourism mean to you? What does sustainable tourism mean to
@Airbnb
?
All
@Airbnb
short-term rental hosts should convert their residential properties back to long term rentals. We already had a housing crisis, now with
#COVID19
, we’re going to need housing more than ever.
#HousingNotProfit
An open call to informed critics of Airbnb: Journalists; Academics; Researchers; Activists. Do you have evidence of intimidation, bullying, personal attacks and ridiculous discrediting from
@Airbnb
. This is becoming a story and it needs to be told. DM/e-mail me/spread the word.
Jersey City voters agree that
@Airbnb
should be regulated. Pre-regulation, only 9% of Airbnb revenue is actually “home sharing”, the rest are Commercial operators.
“The housing crisis: The evolving landscape” a
@POLITICOEurope
event SPONSORED by
@Airbnb
!!
Very hard to understand the thinking at
@POLITICOEurope
that this was a good idea.
All up, this is a great result for NYC. Overnight thousands of presumed illegal
@Airbnb
's have been converted to long-term rentals or removed, and we look forward to seeing how the new registration law plays out over the next few months as we see more data.
While
@Airbnb
sues the city of Paris over its ”right” to advertise illegal listings, it’s buying Paris with marketing gimmicks like this. What are the trustees of the Louvre thinking? Our cultural institutions are
#notforsale
@IanBrossat
@MaximeCochard_
"The details of the law are deeply flawed... What this law is really doing is trying to favor the hotel industry over
@Airbnb
and is likely to have a minimal impact on the actual supply of long-term rental housing in
#NYC
" -NYU Prof Sundarajan
"Platforms like
@AirBnb
cannot be allowed to profit from the [illegal] conversion of residential properties and communities into virtual hotels" from "Revealed: The AirBnb hosts earning millions through the rental platform" by
@GinoSpoc
of
@TelegraphTravel
So, 91% of hosts who’ve signed up to
@Airbnb
’s offer to “provide” housing to first responders are doing so expecting to get paid by the first responders? And only 45 homes are signed up so far to be free to emergency workers? It’s not even worth saying anything. Smh.
@TheJmoosh
I'll try to tweet out these metrics periodically. Since my first tweet, 500 hosts have listed their homes. I believe that 45 are listed for free. The rest are discounted by hosts or subsidized by us.
Why is
@Airbnb
continuing to allow non-essential stays in shared residential properties or for the privileged from
#COVID2019
hotspots to escape to “safer” areas meanwhile increasing the risk there? Shut down
@Airbnb
except for essential use.
@ldeboldfusco
@chrislehane
@bchesky
From an apartment resident in
#Seattle
where
@Airbnb
hosts continue to operate despite
#COVID2019
: "this weekend I saw two families of four and a group of four women all using the shared elevators, lobbies, doorways, hallways that my scared neighbors have no choice but to use".
In
#Berlin
,
@Airbnb
loses appeal after they sued to block request from city to provide host/listing data on illegal unregistered listings (80% of
@Airbnb
listings). Important case law for the whole of Europe, Airbnb will likely appeal to a higher court.
“Alarm over sharp rise in
@Airbnb
listings in coastal areas of England and Wales”
Housing campaigners say growth in holiday lets will turn seaside towns into ‘theme parks for the wealthy’ via
@guardian
@davidcblood
@PorcelinaD
1/7 Tomorrow, Jersey City voters have an opportunity to affirm, via a voter Ballot, ordinances which serve to regulate
@Airbnb
. Here is an exclusive
@InsideAirbnb
report which shows the massive Commercial nature of Airbnb use in Jersey City.
#VoteYesJC
BREAKING: Judge dismisses
@Airbnb
lawsuit against
#NYC
's new registration law, saying the law provides a "simple way to make sure it [Airbnb] is no longer facilitating – and making money from – unlawful activity."
“Hostel hostility: City turns to
@Airbnb
to eliminate illegal short-term rentals” by
@NYAmNews
and
@TandyLau1995
NYC’s enforcement against illegal STR’s took first major step by holding online booking sites responsible if listings were not registered
In this time of crisis
@airbnb
hosts that are “making a little extra money” from hosting in their residential properties can make do like the rest of us. Commercial operators that are permanently renting multiple residences should switch to long-term rentals.
#nobailoutforairbnb
Fresh from the NY courts: “...if platforms possess evidence relevant to an investigation of illegal activity, they're going to have to provide it to the city...the decision could set a precedent for cities looking for info on
@Airbnb
-brokered rentals.”
Most of the short-term-rentals were converted to long-term rentals (~4k were deactivated). LTR's numbered 21,132 in August, and grew overnight to 32,612 on September 5, an increase of 11,480 (or 54%).
83% of Airbnb's are now LTR's in NYC.
“...you can know how to stop illegal short-term rentals” Opening ads in New York City’s public awareness campaign against illegal short-term rentals operating on platforms like
@Airbnb
#stayintheknow
#nyc
@NYCMayorsOffice
#Newark
and
@Airbnb
, this is embarrassing. Housing laws require a mandatory permit that must be obtained and the number displayed by the hosts in all advertisements, yet out of 1,476 Airbnb's, data shows that only *one* Airbnb has a permit number.
Got to love
@Airbnb
trolls who jump on any criticism of Airbnb and say therefore we are pro hotels. It’s part of strategy even used by Airbnb global policy to try to equate it as a fight between two competitors. Follow the links to (disappearing) housing.
Why are
@Airbnb
hosts continuing to list entire apartments for rent in New York City? This isn't part of
@Airbnb
's marketing gloss for
#COVID19
Responders and can only be thought of as 1) non-essential, 2) contrary to stay at home orders, and 3) endangering lives of neighbours.
It's time for residential landlords/investors that don't want to rent to long term tenants to:
a) Stop blaming tenants; and
b) Consider investing their money in a commodity like stocks, instead of a social investment like residential properties
Dear
@NYCMayor
and
@NYGovCuomo
: Now is the time to consider a temporary ban on Short-Term Rentals like
@Airbnb
in
#NY
to protect neighbors from non-essential and dangerous travel. Follow states like Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Vermont, Massachusetts, Florida, Ontario and Quebec.
There’s some kind of intellectual dissonance in criticising capitalism’s impact on housing but using your consumer choice to stay in an illegal
@Airbnb
in
#Berlin
that’s taking away housing from locals.
Solution: consumer education, boycotts and regulations.
Renting
#airbnb
in
#Berlin
. Got yelled at by neighbor because apparently I'm taking away living places for locals. It's not like I'm responsible for late stage capitalism's house shortage.
#NYC
's mandatory registration system, with platform accountability, even in its first few months of enforcement, shows how making platforms like
@Airbnb
liable is the ONLY way to protect housing from illegal hotels. 4/5
It’s important to remember that
@Airbnb
’s “One Host One Home” Policy, EVEN if it was implemented properly, would still leave 20,000 apartments being rented illegally in NYC. ALAS, Airbnb can’t even say in court that its own made up policy was working.
Airbnb admits in a court letter that "various" entities have bypassed their "One Host, One Home" policy by creating multiple host accounts. As a result, the numbers in their public reports contain "errors."
Here's how one of those schemes worked:
Happy Enforcement Day in
#NYC
(the City will start enforcing Local Law 18/2021 today)!
And the games of cat & mouse continue... how is this advertisement for an Entire Condo legal? Is it shared or not? They have a (made-up?) registration number.
Breaking News: While
@Airbnb
is delaying New York’s data disclosure law for short term rental platforms (which passed unanimously) in the courts... the city responds with a court issued subpoena covering 20,000 illegal listings.
If
@Airbnb
got their way, all of the residential housing in our towns and cities would be an unregulated virtual hotel, regardless of the impact on our communities. Airbnb: Disrupting residential communities 4 million times a day!
if the
#BigHotelLobby
got their way - it would be harder and more expensive for people to attend
#Dreamtime2019
. Their five-point plan is bad for tourism and bad for major events in Perth
Precedent setting ruling by judge in Santa Monica legal victory over
@Airbnb
: “removing liability of illegal listings from Airbnb would be akin to creating a lawless no-man’s-land on the internet”
Meet New York State Senator
@JamesSkoufis
. His district is 70 miles from New York City.
His qualifications for introducing a bill that deregulates
@Airbnb
in New York City, which all housing advocates oppose?
@Airbnb
donated almost $500k to elect him!!
But at the end of the day, 100% of the entire “home” listings on
@Airbnb
in the U.S. and the rest of the world could be homes that residents could be living in.
What does sustainable tourism and sustainable communities mean to you? 8/8
A Hotel Tax? How does a hotel tax compensate for the loss of residential housing, increased rents, and the cost of housing caused by
@Airbnb
?
#regulate
THREAD:
[1/8] The first edition of a new monthly bulletin with
#data
on
@Airbnb
in
#Venice
is out today! Curated by
@alice_corona
, an
@InsideAirbnb
collaborator. You can see the latest numbers and trends to understand Airbnb's impact on the historic city.
7/7 "One pager" on all the stats mentioned here.
Blog post *may* be coming soon
@Airbnb
, please send contributions ($$,$$$), as we are doing the job your PR/crisis management flaks are failing at:
European Court of Justice rules that tax authorities in Europe can request information from intermediaries like
@Airbnb
which includes details of the operator, location and number of overnight stays.
Major legal decision in Massachusetts that affirms that short-term rentals and
@Airbnb
are incompatible with residential zoning.
"BREAKING: Mass. SJC Rules on Compatibility of Short-Term Rentals with Single-Family Zoning" via
@natlawreview
"New York City Sued Airbnb Operators For Allegedly Posing As Fake Hosts": A $20.7 million lawsuit implicates a ring of real estate agents and companies posting multiple listings on sites including
@Airbnb
via
@anrao
of
@motherboard
This will be defining as evidence of how "hosts" use
@Airbnb
in
#NYC
"Brooklyn Landlord Allegedly Created 'Paradise' For Airbnb Renters, Sent Rent-Stabilized Tenant Fridge With Rat In It" by
@lizkimtweets
of
@Gothamist
“
@Airbnb
wants to be regulated” TRANSLATION: “We want the appearance of being regulated, while we continue to get revenue from commercial operators”. In
#TNTO
, 73% of Airbnb’s revenue is from illegal, commercial listings.
@joe_cressy
"It’s time for AirBnB to become part of the housing affordability solution." --
@joe_cressy
Airbnb wants to be regulated. We have always advocated for fair, sensible home-sharing regulations & look forward to continuing our collaborative relationship with the City of Toronto.
"
#NYC
Townhouse Owners Are Being Fined $000's for Illegal
@Airbnb
's: ...often misled by Airbnb advertising & brokers who aren't aware of the regulations and believe if they own a 1 or 2-family home they can earn income through Airbnb"
@Forbes
via
@lchamoff
5/7 Policy recommendations:
Regulate
1. Platform Accountability (for all platforms)
2. Platforms must provide data to city/province
3. Multi point verification system (License #, legal name, address including apartment #) Platform -> Province (via API)
@Airbnb
has already reported, and my data corroborates it, that most of the 7 million
@Airbnb
listings are still available for tourists. So signing up for Airbnb’s emergency response branded campaign for profit is the same. How about turning them back into homes?
[8/8] In summary, the data on
@Airbnb
in
#Venice
shows us:
1. Commercial hosts managing dozens of listings
2. High % are whole homes
3. Majority are commercial
4. Accumulation of listings and revenues in the hands of a few
5. Geographical concentration in already touristed areas
1/8 Great reporting from
@Gothamist
's
@jeffwilen
&
@DavidFBrand
which absolutely shows how
@Airbnb
is a gentrification tool.
"Airbnb reshaped these Bed-Stuy blocks. What happens when it’s gone?"
@AirbnbCitizen
@Airbnb
@cityofbarrie
@Mayor_Jeff
How does the accomodation tax pay for lost residential housing? How does it compensate taxpayers for incentives given to build/buy residential properties. How does converting residential housing into hotels align with the social planning goals for the city?
#AirbnbIsNotTheAnswer
This data request from "...a small Real Estate investment firm that is focused on Barcelona and Paris properties. So far they have acquired hundreds of units across both cities and have used the
@Airbnb
platform to list their properties for rent."
@StealingOurHomes
The evidence keeps on stacking up about short-term rentals’ (
@Airbnb
’s) impact on the cost of housing and renters. They’ve cost British Columbian renters $2B!
Important work by
@dwachsmuth
’s team at
@mcgillu
Vienna demands that the EU require platforms like
@Airbnb
ro follow local laws. In Vienna, 2,000 apartments lost to tourist accommodation and
@Airbnb
refuses to remove illegal listings from social housing (for english subtitles, click on CC)
Stay tuned for
@Fairbnbcanada
's Press Conference tomorrow releasing their report on short-term rentals in
#Ottawa
: "...in key Wards, as much as 90% of
@Airbnb
revenue comes from commercial use, not true home-sharing"
4/7 The most widely used potentially fraudulent license # is "300481", which is used 55 times. The list goes on, and on, and on. "123456" was used 29 times, and "0" was used 10 times.
"Governments must be allowed to balance tourism while protecting housing and residential communities, and hold platforms like
@AirBnb
accountable" fm "Revealed: The AirBnb hosts earning millions through the rental platform" by
@GinoSpoc
of
@TelegraphTravel
When I’m not fighting residential housing pillager
@airbnb
, I’m busy working in my local Central Brooklyn Community to open a Black-led Food Coop that collectively brings healthy affordable food to the long term residents. Consider supporting or sharing...
In New York City, this commercial
@Airbnb
operator had 26 fake “host” accounts and 76 illegal apartment listings. Airbnb said they had “no place on their platform” yet they shared in the illegal profits for four years. Airbnb needs to be held to account.
@Airbnb
have had years to prepare for this new regulation which makes them explicitly liable in
#Toronto
, but have chosen to ignore the law and continue to profit from illegal activity on their platform.
BREAKING:
@Airbnb
sues
#NYC
(again). This time over new registration regulation which enforces New York’s housing laws that protect…. housing (not hotels).
Wow.
@Airbnb
has got to be stopped. 'Mass evictions' in Athens as government offers golden visa incentive to Airbnb investors from Russia and China. Via
@Telegraph
'I wanted my children to grow up here': how
@Airbnb
is ruining local communities in north Wales.
Families in Gwynedd county being evicted as swathes of property converted to short-term rentals – and the situation being played out across the country.
3/7 At March 29, there were 2,209 listings using a duplicate CITQ license. 1,519 listings are using a CITQ license that is used by 5 or more other listings.
Q: Is this how
@Airbnb
miraculously "cleaned shop" overnight?
Real illegal rate of Airbnb STRs is probably closer to 80%.
@Airbnb
has claimed (falsely) in various courts that it is an intermediary and not responsible for host properties. The (responsible) decision to cancel reservations, but done without consulting hosts and against host cancellation policies sets a precedent that will haunt Airbnb.
With
#COVID19
,
@Airbnb
has to further rely on hosts renting out entire residential homes. Putting them further in conflict with cities and towns who want to keep residential properties and neighborhoods, residential.
Every city, especially those with poorly enforced regulations for short-term rentals should be held accountable by their councils and residents to do better to protect residential housing and communities.
“In our city, we cannot afford the consequences of losing any more affordable housing units from a supply that is already in a desperate deficiency,”
@cd4losangeles