Skift Take
There's not a David and Goliath battle happening here. It's more like new money versus old money, and we expect to see some excellent public relations work on every side.
Over the weekend, The New York Times published an article, "Inside the Hotel Industry's Plans to Combat Airbnb," which included pages from a 2016 internal American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) document, detailing the organization's plans for limiting the growth of short-term rentals and the platforms that enable them, namely Airbnb.
That action plan includes the launch of a new ad campaign called "My Neighborhood" that would feature testimonials from people negatively impacted by short-term rentals, as well as funding research that purports to demonstrate how Airbnb and other platforms are predominantly used by commercial operators, not everyday middle-class Americans.
Is it a battle for the future of the middle class, as Airbnb consistently positions this? Or is it just another business battle between multi-national hotel chains and a venture capital-backed company valued at $31 billion?
The AHLA's Job
The New York Times article described AHLA as "a trade group that counts Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide and Hyatt Hotels as members," interchangeably using "AHLA" and "the hotel industry" throughout its piece. Fighting illegal hotels is just one of many issues AHLA tackles. It also has campaigns aimed at preventi
