Airbnb News

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.