Airbnb could see its seven years activity go to waste if the company won’t reach an agreement with authorities. For this to happen, Airbnb wishes to work with municipalities, even though one week ago it was determined to stand its ground, says Boston Globe.
Home sharing is the future of tourism!
Previous week, you couldn’t have shaken Airbnb from its position, with the company firing off a warning shot to cities that it would fight back if municipal officials proposed rules that might cut or affect its home-sharing service. “There is going to be more people doing home-sharing tomorrow than there are today; there is going to be more the day after that. This is now a movement.”, said Chris Lehane, Airbnb’s head of global policy and public affairs, quoted by the same source.
Now, the San Francisco based company kind off changed its tone and wants to make peace with authorities. “Given the size of the Airbnb community, this just seems like the right time for us to be very specific about the types of commitments we’re willing to make.
Hotels should stay away from the platform
Cities are looking to do the right thing, and they need the right information to do so.”, stated Lehane. To do so, Airbnb prepared a document, called the Airbnb Community Compact, that shapes a new plan involving municipalities, as the company is willing to share anonymous data on the hosts and guests who use the service, prevent illegal hotel landlords from operating on the platform and pay its “fair share” of hotel and tourist taxes in cities that have them, according to Boston Globe.
With a market value at about $24 billion, Airbnb it’s on a roll, with 2 million listings across more than 34,000 cities, so it’s explainable why an agreement with authorities is more convenient for the company, especially in a tricky regulatory environment like the one it’s into.
