Airbnb News

Even without a permanent CFO in the company since February, Airbnb is on track to be lucrative for the second year in a row based on an EBITDA basis, according to CNBC.
After the tension between the old CFO Laurence Tosi and CEO Brian Chesky, Ellie Mertz has stepped up as Head of Financial Planning and Analysis.

With 2019 around the corner and the exciting news of the initial public offer, the home-sharing startup announced more than 1 billion dollars in revenue for Q3 of 2018.

The idea of a world where everyone belongs everywhere is Airbnb’s mission and main goal. In a memo shared publicly, the company wrote that they will update their clients in regards its work for IPO’ing in the weeks to come.

Unlike Uber and WeWork, Airbnb has kept quiet ahead of public market debuts. For the first time in ten-years history, the company is giving the public insights on its revenue.

Currently valued at 31 billion dollars, Airbnb is one of the most valuable start-ups in the US.

Ian Brossat wants to prohibit the purchase of secondary residences in Paris as it making it hard for the residents to keep their houses. The high number of tourists in Paris makes the French capital appears as an open-air museum. The high demand for residential houses in Paris has made it hard for the Parisians to own the property.Brossat who is vying for European parliament seat with the Communist party promises to make apartments available to Parisians by prohibiting Airbnb and other website renting the houses to foreigners. Airbnb and other websites have focused on tourist accommodation in Paris forcing the residents to vacate the capital.

There are over 60,000 apartments available for rent in the city, but the locals are unable to afford due to the high rental prices. Airbnb takes the opportunity of the unaffordable houses to the locals to rent out to foreigners and other visitors. Middle-class Parisians are unable to rent in the city which is currently occupied by Saudi and American billionaires. The prohibiting of house renting to short-term tourists will reduce rent prices making the locals to afford the apartments. The first to the fourth arrondissements of Paris should be occupied by the locals to conserve the Parisian culture. Paris is divided into twenty arrondissements where Brossat will ensure that the First, Second, Third and Fourth are occupied entirely by locals. The locals should be surrounding the popular sites of Paris which are Louvre museum and the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. The prohibiting of tourist rentals on the popular sites will make the locals enjoy the city for a smooth flow of community. The focus on the locals is an essential aspect in making it possible to accomplish the economic and social development goals.

Brossat aims at introducing laws that will make it possible for the locals to own apartments in the city. It is essential for the government officials to act on the rising number of visitors owning houses in Paris. The high number of short-term tourists will lead to the destruction of the cultural and valuable museum in the area to accommodate their needs. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has limited the number of rentals to tourists to 120 nights a year. The limitation will make the homeowners consider locals for their houses for a smooth flow of operations in the real estate industry. The directive is meant to reduce the number of tourists renting in Paris. Homeowners ignoring the policy are required to pay fines which increased to 1.38 million Euros from January to 15th August 2018 compared to 1.3 million for the whole of 2017. The crackdown will soon be used in Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Berlin which are cities with the high number of tourists.

There are new rules in Vancouver which have caused the pulling off of thousands of listings from Airbnb. The main aim of the new regulations in Vancouver is to lower the number of homes rented out to tourists on the site. Amazingly, the rules seem to be working. According to the city, the number of listing on Airbnb reduced from 6,600 to 3,742 in April. This was after the new rules begin operating on September 1. The new rules say that; homeowners can only offer their main residences for a very short rental term on the site. Besides, to be able to give out, one must have a $49-a-year license. The main aim of these rules is to return the primary residences to the long-term rental market which has had little vacancy rates in the past few years. The lower vacancy rates have led to eye-popping prices.

However, it is not yet clear whether the new regulations are the reason why the rental prices in Vancouver have stabilized. In June last year, the median range of one-bedroom house was $2,090 a month in regard to website Padmapper. After fourteen months, the median price lowered to $2,000. As the prices drop here, in so many other Canadians cities the prices continue to rise, in fact, in most of the cities, the priced is double. For example, in Toronto, the average cost of a one bedroom goes up by 15.7 percent a year after the other hitting $2,140. In Montreal, they experienced a 14.8% increase over the exact period. So here the Medan price of a one-bedroom house is $1,320.

In Vancouver, the number is likely to continue to fall as they begin to enforce the regulations. So far, the city has issued 2,630 licenses only. This means 1,112 has not been licensed yet which is a violation of the new regulations. Some individuals appear to be breaking the rules in some ways. The CTV Vancouver captured various examples of listings using a similar license number which is agonist the law.

According to Kathryn Holm, who is the city’s chief license inspector, the city will begin to work via those files offering tickets. She also stated that in case of blatant misuse or misrepresentation, the fine can go up to $1,000 a day. In January, similar regulations were passed in Toronto. The rules were banning short-term rentals in the non-primary residences. However, the rules are not yet in force due to a petition with Ontario Local Planning Appeal Tribuna.

A Sydney-based housing and hospitality firm, Hometime, has secured a deal with the American’s famous online housing company Airbnb in its attempts to market itself. The company led by the former equity analyst Dave Thompson and former project engineer William Crock was founded in 2016, and in just a year, it had raised capital of $1.5 million. Ideally, the partnership aims at promoting Hometime in marketing platforms such as community meetings to be able to manage its clients’ listings.

Sam McDonagh, the American company manager for New Zealand and Australia, said they had a similar deal with a Britain start-up business to combine their efforts to achieve a common goal. Airbnb aims at promoting the starting businesses as well as itself. To date, it has earned about 140,000 listings in Australia with its hosts making approximately $4100 a year. Hometime, on the other hand, has built a strong customer base with hundreds of hosts across Australia. However, it aims at expanding its business in Brisbane, Gold Coast and later to Auckland.

The company charges a commission fee of 16 percent off the gross Airbnb rental income of the property with regular travellers staying at a cottage on average 3.4 nights, whereas travellers from its growing business parts spend approximately 5.2 nights. While still serving individuals, Hometime is also working with other accommodation providers such as hostel beds, apartments, breakfasts, cottages and the newly reopened Terminus Hotel in Pyrmont in Sydney to help them list their rooms on Airbnb.

They have also talked to the government to formulate strategies that help landlords to rent properties on Airbnb without any restrictions or development approvals like in South Australia. However, Sam McDonagh promised them that he would engage different state officials to achieve the same, and in a few years, it is expected to have significantly progressed. Airbnb will eventually be prominent in Sydney.

A new data released by Airbnb shows that the number of guests has significantly increased across the Western Cape. The data discusses how home sharing has impacted the residents of this locality. Airbnb brings positive impact to the local communities, families and businesses.

The released data primarily focuses on the amount of money spent by guests and the earnings that the hosts make. About last year, the data shows that Airbnb community made close to R5 billions of economic undertakings in the locality. It was achieved by boosting the local economy as well as investing the money back to the residents.

Other information on the data indicates that Airbnb is vastly growing in the Western Cape. In the year 2017, about 15,000 hosts in Western Cape was home to over 540, 000 visitors from all corners of the world. This is a tremendous growth of 86% from the year 2016. Airbnb hosting is undoubtedly improving the region’s economy.

The standard listing was shared for about two days in a month. A conventional host could then earn about $2,600 (R 34,400) each year. These hosts improved the economy of the local community as they generated about R1 billion. A typical guest used to spend around R 1,715 a day in the region’s businesses and communities.

Home sharing is an essential tool in spreading the advantages of tourism. Tourism grew over the last year because of the introduction of new trending destinations apart from the ordinary tourist hot spots.
The local communities are now choosing the staycations. More than a third of the tourists that toured the area originated from South Africa. It highlighted that the locals preferred staycation to relish the cities at their neighbourhood. Visitors from the United States were second in numbers to tour this region as they recorded 54,600 guests. Great Britain was a close third as they registered 54,400 guests.
The data being released today goes hand-in-hand with the community’s compact. Frequent sharing of data on the effects of home sharing is useful in creating a transparent and open society.

There is a lot of trouble brewing on the horizon for Airbnb. The popular tourism accommodation service provides leases of short-term apartments, cottages and the like for travelers to use on when they take vacations abroad. But that’s all up in the air now: Paris city officials have taken the company to court over their illegally listed apartments.

This hasn’t come out of the blue. Paris has been warning Airbnb about their conduct for a long time.Deputy housing mayor, Ian Brossat, remarked that “Airbnb does not respect the law,” and that it “has not made the slightest effort and has even explicitly refused to withdraw the ads.”

So what’s going on? Well, the issue is about restrictions and tax. Current legislation in Paris requires that homeowners may not let out their homes for more than 120 days a year, and it seems that properties listed on Airbnb have fallen afoul of this rule. Many homeowners seek to sidestep legal regulations and dodge fines and costs by failing to submit appropriate tax details. Paris city officials now accuse Airbnb of listing a massive 43,000 properties illegally. In December, the city warned Airbnb about these properties, urging them to deal with the problem, but Airbnb has refused to shift.

The outcome of the case on June 12th will determine whether or not the illegal advertisements will be allowed to remain on offer. If Paris wins the case, the court will force Airbnb to remove the listings and travelers will no longer be able to book or stay in their accommodation. Those who have already made their reservations might find themselves unable to contact the company or host, and those who have paid deposits may discover that they cannot obtain a refund.

Airbnb had been uncooperative throughout the process, and its track record does not bode well for it. The company has already been forced to pay fines of $1,200-$6,200 per illegitimate home for every day that they list it, mounting up to a grand total of $1.5 million last year. The total number that Airbnb has been made to pay out this year had already climbed to $603,000.

Airbnb commented that the matter of renting holiday accommodation was complex and they encouraged Paris to take the same route followed in London, Berlin, and Barcelona, but as yet the company has shown no sign of complying with Paris’ request.

None of this should come as a great surprise. Airbnb had illegitimate rentals thrown off its site last January when regulations in San Francisco forced them to remove over 3,000 listings – more than half of those listed in total. When this happened, unregistered hosts had all their reservations cancelled without notice and guests were forced to alter their plans, in some cases at short notice.

If you’re waiting to stay in a Paris accommodation booked with Airbnb, it would be a good idea to get in touch with your host as soon as you can. Confirm whether or not they have a valid tax IS. This should be a 13-digit number. If the host cannot provide this information then that should be a big red flag: it’s highly probable that their property is being rented to you illegally. You should protect yourself and consider cancelling the reservation immediately. If you have yet to book your accommodation in Paris then now you know: avoid Airbnb and book a hotel with one of our favorites, or seek guidance from a professional travel specialist.