It’s not exactly a failing company: last year, it reported a net income of $1.9bn.
Last week, Airbnb announced it would be laying off 30% of its recruiting staff, even as it expected to expand its head count elsewhere. According to AirDNA, the rental analytics company, occupancy rates fell in 31 of the top 50 largest US short-term rental markets in the second half of last year. Now, Covid disruptions notwithstanding, the market in short-term rentals appears to be slowing. ‘In August 2021, Barcelona became the first major city in Europe to ban short-term private room rentals.’ Photograph: kpzfoto/Alamy It was, literally, all so homespun and pleasing. And look, here came a nice host to tell you which local diner to eat at. If you were travelling with kids, the mere presence of a kitchen made Airbnb properties seem like a dream. It seemed like such a win, a wild combination of more space for less money, deeper engagement with a local community and, by circumventing hotel chains, the obscure but unavoidable sense present at the start of so much disruptive technology, that you were getting one over the Man. I remember the promise of early stays at Airbnbs. And so, in February, hosts of Airbnb, Vrbo and similar properties-for-let companies stood by for a bonanza, hiking prices to an average of $1,000 a night.
Unlike some cities – notably, Barcelona and Los Angeles – that have introduced measures to curb the growth of short-term rentals, in Phoenix there are few restrictions. I n the US, the canary in the coalmine may turn out to have been the Super Bowl last month, when the confluence of the biggest game in American football, a huge international golf tournament and annual spring training should have brought a windfall to the landlords of Phoenix, Arizona.
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