Ep239: Airbnb News Updates

In this news episode I chat with the one and only David Jacoby, president and co-founder of Hostfully. We discuss the topics related to Airbnb that have been in the news recently. 

Topics include:

The cost of Airbnb to New York renters: $616 million

According to a new study by city comptroller Scott Stringer, Airbnb caused New York residents to pay an extra $616 million in rent from 2009 to 2016. The study used data from AirDnA to calculate the effect that the short term rental website had on rents. 

Shortly after the report was published, Scott Shattford, CEO of AirDnA, disputed the conclusion saying that the errors were made interpreting the data. In addition, he couldn't find a payment record of the comptroller's office, suggesting that the data had been obtained illegally. 

The Best (And Worst) Cities To Make Money On Airbnb

Using data from Airbnb, a website called Homes.com researched the best and worst cities in the US to make money on Airbnb. Instead of looking at absolute dollar amounts, they expressed the profitability in terms of how many days it would take to cover a monthly mortgage payment. 

According to the study, Ohio is the place to be to rent on Airbnb, featuring the top two cities: Akron and Cleveland. Less than five days per month is sufficient to cover the mortgage in these places. Compare that to places in California such as San Francisco and San Jose, where you would need 23 and 27 days respectively to cover the mortgage. In general it seems that states in the mid-west feature the best opportunities. However, these regions may also see lower demand than the major cities on the east and west coast.