The Future of Airbnb and the Sharing Economy by Jeroen A. Oskam

Author:Jeroen A. Oskam [Oskam, Jeroen A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781845416720
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Channel View Publications
Published: 2019-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 8.1 ‘Verified’ Sammy may well be a Russian model

In 2017, the 60-day cap in Amsterdam was enforced by self-regulatory restrictions on Airbnb: the hosts were shown a counter with the number of days that were still legally available, and renting beyond the 60-day maximum was made impossible. The easiest workaround for hosts was to use competing platforms; it is also conceivable that hosts made double listings for one unit on Airbnb, although that would have the disadvantage of losing the economic value of guest reviews. Our study (Bakker et al., 2018a) found a compliance for listings newly created in 2017, but an average of 75 rental days for older listings. Besides rentals through competing platforms, the main explanation was reservations made in 2016 for stays in 2017. Airbnb itself has been shown – in addition to the inaccuracies of its marketing narrative – to be equally deceitful. In November 2015, a transparency initiative showed a favourable evolution of its business in New York, downplaying the role of commercial operators. Cox and Slee (2016) discovered an unusual purge of 1000 listings immediately prior to the publication of the numbers.

Berlin provides a good case study for the effectiveness of regulations. To prevent housing market effects, the city adopted Zweckentfremdung or ‘purpose alienation’ laws, i.e. legislation on the use of residential housing for a different purpose. When these went into effect on 1 May 2016, they were considered as among the strictest in Europe, with fines up to €100,000. There is an immediate effect on the total number of listings, as Cox (2017b) observes in his monthly scrapes: from their peak of 17,372 on 4 February, total listings fall 23.3% to 13,328 on 3 May. For entire homes this effect is even stronger: these listings are reduced 33.7%, from 10,634 to 7064 between February and May. But after this initial scare, both numbers recover: on 8 May of the next year listings are back to a total of 20,576 (+18.4%), and to 10,285 (−3.3%) for entire homes (see Figure 8.2).

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