France is bracing for airport chaos on Monday as air traffic controllers go on strike.
06.12.2023 - 04:12 / skift.com / Srividya Kalyanaraman / Hilton Hotels
Happy Tuesday, folks! If you need as much coffee as I did this morning, you had a good weekend.
Let’s hit it.
On the agenda today:
The UK has a housing problem, not a short-term rental problem, says the industry association there.
The UK short-term accommodation association’s (UKSTAA) research estimates that there are nearly 2 million potential homes for construction, with up to 1.5 million of them “deliverable” within the next five years.
Key caveat: If the government wants to pull up its socks and get to work.
Its methodology involved analyzing 294 Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessments, a study which every local authority is required to undertake to give an overview of the potential development sites within its boundary, as well as the government’s Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessments. These city councils are required to regularly demonstrate how they plan to meet local housing needs over the coming five years and beyond.
The association said this would add 6% in the current housing stock.
But it’s not without its bias. If and when these homes are eventually built, some of these are likely to turn into short-term lets. And the association is championing the cause for tourism, arguing that restricting rentals won’t help the local economy.
But really, its fight is against the hotels.
“Does anybody ever have a conversation with Hilton Hotels, asking them to justify why the Hilton Hotel in Delhi or New York or London isn’t a block of flats?,” said UKSTAA CEO Andy Fenner. “Of course not, there the conversation is about how much investment and how many jobs they bring in.”
The UK Has a Housing Problem. Restricting Rentals Won’t Fix it
The Hawaii Vacation Rental Performance Report for October was recently released and it indicates a challenging situation for vacation rentals. There is a shortage of vacation rental units, leading to high pricing and low demand. The report highlights that if this trend continues, nightly rates may decrease, and more deals could become available for travelers, reported.
Vacation rental management software provider 365Villas has integrated its platform with payment processing company Worldpay. This involves using Worldpay’s API to provide UK property managers with an additional payment gateway. This integration adds to 30 global payment gateway providers in the 365Villas platform.
The City of Santa Barbara’s fiscal year runs from July to June. And the city’s first quarter results are just out. As of September, its sales tax totaled $7.4 million — less than the budgeted amount by 6.6%, the reported.
The transient occupancy tax (TOT), a 12% tax collected on hotels, motels, and short-term rentals and vacation rentals, was also down. In October
France is bracing for airport chaos on Monday as air traffic controllers go on strike.
The Summer Olympics are returning to Paris exactly a century after it last hosted the event. A country where fine wine and haute cuisine prevail means Paris doesn’t have a reputation for being particularly affordable. To make the Games more accessible, some events around the Seine will have free viewing zones – including the opening ceremony. But we’re still living in a material world and you’ll need to pay the rental on your humble flat. With nightly rates circling $150 or less, these are the most budget-friendly Airbnbs for the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The past year has seen a flurry of cabins crop up near the shores of Broken Bow Lake in southeast Oklahoma. Cloaked in pine and pawpaw trees, this rural region likely has a higher permanent population of black bears and bald eagles than people. Fishing, hiking, and boating have maintained steady tourism but the recent boom in new chalets has put the teensy hamlet of Hochatown on the map, literally. Airbnb is credited with creating this vacation bubble in the aftermath of the pandemic as travelers in OK and TX seek countryside getaways closer to home.
Airbnb launched its Host Clubs in 2016, in part to help with local campaigns against regulatory clampdowns. Now, it is seeking to expand these clubs.
Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, December 6. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
If you’ve read the various hot takes on the state of the housing market as indexed by Airbnb revenue, here are a few concerns you can put to rest. What will happen to the housing market in a recession is anybody’s guess, but speaking purely of Airbnb as a stock, the company has a few things going for it.
Airbnb recently reminded hosts that it plans to shutter its email alias feature September 30. The feature enables hosts and guests to email and share documents, such as PDFs of property guides, passports and other IDs from their regular emails accounts without having to log into Airbnb.
Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, who left his full-time role at the company a year ago, has sold more than $1.37 billion worth of his Class A shares since that time, including more than $1 billion so far in 2023, according to regulatory filings, Bloomberg reported. Gebbia still chairs the non-profit Airbnb.org, but more importantly, he retains the bulk — but not all — of his Class B shares, which now give him 19.8% of Airbnb’s voting power. Together with his two other co-founders, CEO Brian Chesky (30.6%) and Chief Strategy Officer Nathan Blecharczyk (26.9%), they control 77.3% of Airbnb’s voting power.
A New York state court judge dismissed an Airbnb lawsuit against New York City, ruling the city had a right to require host registration and licenses, and that it was reasonable to require that Airbnb — and other platforms — verify that listings have licenses, or face penalties.
Airbnb has partnered with Sentral Wynwood in Miami, allowing apartment tenants to rent out their units for up to 75 days. When tenants choose to list their apartments, Airbnb will handle pricing, security, access for guests, and cleaning.
Happy hump day, folks – let’s get into it. I was reading this latest report from Skift’s director of research Wouter Geerts: Airbnb vs Vrbo in 20 Charts, and here are a few stats I find interesting.
Happy Tuesday, folks! We’re back after last week’s 10th annual Skift Global Forum in New York City. It was quite the event: Notable speakers for me were Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, Salamander Hotels CEO Sheila Johnson, and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.