The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) released a study last week alleging rampant illegal activity among Airbnb's most prolific hosts and pushed for more stringent regulations on home rentals.
Airbnb called the report "deeply flawed" and "misleading."
The study, commissioned by the AH&LA from Penn State University's School of Hospitality Management, estimated that almost 40% of Airbnb's revenue in the 12 largest U.S. metropolitan areas is generated by hosts with at least two units and that almost 30% of revenue is generated by so-called "full-time hosts" who book units at least 360 days per year.
The AH&LA argues that many Airbnb hosts violate short-term rental prohibitions while acting as de facto hotels without paying occupancy taxes or abiding by safety and accessibility regulations mandated for hoteliers.
For the study, Penn State used data from Airdna (a company that provides data to vacation rental entrepreneurs and investors) for the 13 months ended September 2015. The data was culled from properties in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Miami, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco and Washington.
Combined, hosts in those cities who rented out entire homes generated $1.3 billion in revenue for the 13 months.
Such activity from what AH&LA termed "corporate landlords" was particularly common in Miami, where it said full-time hosts accounted for 61% of the city's Airbnb revenue (see chart, top right).
Throughout the 12 cities, full-time hosts averaged $142,000 in revenue over the 13-month period.
"A significant and growing percentage of Airbnb's revenue comes from those with multiple residential properties rented out on a full-time rental basis," AH&LA CEO Katherine Lugar said in a Jan. 20 conference call. "These corporate landlords dodge taxes, skirt the laws and flout safety standards."
Airbnb faulted the study, calling it inaccurate and misleading. In New York, about 95% of Airbnb's hosts have just one listing, while the median number of a host's annual nights booked per year is 42, according to Airbnb spokesman Nick Papas. In San Francisco, the average Airbnb home rents out 90 nights per year, while in Los Angeles and Seattle, 80% of Airbnb listings are booked fewer than 90 days per year, he said.
Papas added that while the AH&LA study pegs the number of full-time hosts within the 12 metro areas measured at almost 2,700, the true number is 17.
"The overwhelming majority of Airbnb hosts are middle-class people who occasionally share only the home in which they live, and while Airbnb hosts keep 97% of the price they charge for their listings, hotels take most of the money they earn out of the community," Papas said.
Airbnb reports on tax remittance
The day after AH&LA dropped the report, Airbnb released its own study at the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Winter meeting in Washington, which spelled out the current and potential revenue Airbnb could remit to cities by collecting occupancy taxes on its hosts' behalf. Airbnb estimated that it had remitted $42.6 million to the 20 cities it has reached agreements with to collect and remit occupancy taxes. The company added that by reaching occupancy-tax remittance agreements with the largest 50 U.S. cities, it would be able to generate about $200 million per year in annual tax revenue for municipalities.
The AH&LA's release of the study reflects the growing impact of home-based rentals on the lodging market. For the eight months ended February 2015, the number of U.S. shoppers on OTAs who cross-shopped Airbnb listings tripled, Phocuswright reported earlier this month. Meanwhile, Airbnb has been valued at about $25 billion, while home-based vacation-rentals listing service HomeAway was acquired by OTA Expedia last month for $3.9 billion.
The report also reflects the AH&LA's continued efforts to protect the U.S. lodging industry during a period when U.S. occupancy has reached record levels of about 66%.
Last year, the AH&LA lobbied for the U.S. Department of Justice to block Expedia's pending acquisition of smaller OTA Orbitz Worldwide, saying that the buyout would boost prices and hurt smaller hotel operators. That transaction was approved, and the $1.34 billion acquisition was completed last September.
The AH&LA said last week that it would continue to lobby on behalf of hoteliers and push for oversight of companies like Airbnb.