Where do you want to AirbnBE on Vacation?
Many travelers are taking advantage of the more affordable lodging that Airbnb offers over a traditional hotel stay. This contributes greatly to Airbnb’s rising prescience in travel accommodations.
Airbnb is an up and coming business from San Francisco established in 2008 that rents out spare bedrooms of people’s houses to those looking for a cheap stay. Airbnb makes it profit by receiving 3% from host and 6–12% from guest per booking (Intelligence BI). However, the National Hotel Association has been trying to have the Airbnb houses comply with the same rules and regulations as hotels(Benner). The American Hotel and Lodging Association along with many other groups are trying to decrease the amount of houses Airbnb offers because they claim they are concerned about the houses not abiding to fire safety rules and other guidelines. Some wonder whether this movement is incentivized by the threat Airbnb poses to established chain hotels. However, Chesky , CEO of Airbnb, claims that surveys prove that they are not a threat to Hotel customers(Intelligence, BI). The Airbnb demographic are those that would typically not have traveled without the low lodging cost, or would have stayed with a relative. Airbnb provides affordability to Socio- economic classes that typically would not be able to overlook the cost of housing on vacation. However, it has shown that Airbnb does provide some competition for hotels during holidays. Hotels have had to lower their prices during the holidays just to compete with Airbnbs, where in the past they typically had to raise their prices (Benner). However, for Airbnb to really encroach upon popular Hotel’s business they would have to appeal to business travel. Hotel’s make most of their revenue from customers on business trips. It is interesting to see how Airbnb will respond to these groups working against them and how established hotels will adapt to Airbnb’s success. Who knows what other opportunities will be offered when you book your next vacation.
Written by Talia Carlson
Emory University | EEVM | Programming Associate
