SB50 Spikes Airbnb Demand, Study Finds Airbnb Relies on Longer Stays
SANTA CLARA (CBS-SF) -- Just as Airbnb officials announced "extremely high" demand for Super Bowl 50 Airbnb lodgings in Santa Clara, San Francisco and the surrounding area Wednesday, a new study shows that Airbnb's revenue stream relies heavily on long-term rentals.
The study from Pennsylvania State University's School of Hospitality Management takes a comprehensive look at Airbnb hosts and examines a claim that Airbnb made in December 2015, maintaining that in New York, "Home sharing is an economic lifeline for the middle class. A typical listing earns $5,110 a year, and is typically shared less than 4 nights per month."
Dr. John W. O'Neill, the lead author of the study, says that that "does not represent the full picture" and that the data showed "an alarming trend" of multiple-unit operators renting out two or more units, and full-time operators who are renting their unit or units year-round.
Read the full Penn State study here.
But leading up to Super Bowl 50, Airbnb has been championing the short-term listings on their site located in close proximity to the event.
In a statement by Airbnb officials released Wednesday, they write, "Next month, one of the world's biggest extravaganzas will be coming to Airbnb's home region when the Bay Area hosts Super Bowl 50 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara. Although the event is still several weeks away, we pulled the numbers to take a sneak peek at how the Airbnb community is preparing."
Airbnb officials said that "demand thus far is roughly three times higher than for Super Bowl 2015," which was held in Arizona and that while there are still Airbnb lodgings available, three-quarters of the remaining listings in Santa Clara are more than $360 per night, Airbnb officials said.
The Penn State study, which was funded through a grant provided by the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Foundation with additional funds provided by the American Hotel & Lodging Association, found that multiple-unit operators and full-time operators comprise a growing percentage of Airbnb's hosts and "are generating a disproportionate share of Airbnb's revenue in major U.S. cities."
Multi-unit hosts account for nearly 40 percent of the revenue on Airbnb, or roughly $500 million of the $1.3 billion in revenue Airbnb generated in 12 major cities from September 2014 to September 2015, the Penn State study found.
The study did not include data on shared rooms and shared apartments, nor unique units such as boats, tree houses and tents.
Full-time operators in that same period and in those same 12 cities, comprised nearly 30 percent of Airbnb revenue, the study found.
The study also looked at "mega-operators," those who rented out three or more units, and found that from 2014 to 2015, not only did the number of those mega-operators almost double, but the revenue generated by those mega-operators almost doubled as well.
In San Francisco, the Penn State study determined that during that 2014-2015 period, 22.4 percent of Airbnb revenue in that market, or roughly $43 million, came from 308 full-time operators.
In Los Angeles, Airbnb revenue generated from full-time operators in that market reached over 31 percent, in Miami it reached over 61 percent.
By Hannah Albarazi - Follow her on Twitter
