Airbnb Gets New Power to Inform on Rivals When They Are Scofflaws
Photo Credit: Airbnb has reached settlements with Boston and Miami Beach. Pictured is a Miami Airbnb experience with Cristina Garcia of Electro Funk Lords. Airbnb
Skift Take
Is the Boston-Airbnb settlement, which calls for short-term regulatory platforms to comply with a city ordinance, a model for future agreements? Too soon to tell but what's clear is that the alternative accommodations industry will one day transition from outliers to regulated entities.
New Airbnb settlements with Boston and Miami Beach legitimize alternative accommodations in those cities, but also give the homesharing giant new leverage over competitors.
Airbnb settled with the two cities to provide hosts' information and to delist those who aren't registered, and the Boston agreement also notably requires "fairness across platforms."
This entails efforts to level the playing field — not so much among short-term rental platforms and hotels necessarily but, in this instance, between Airbnb, Booking Holdings, Expedia/Vrbo, TripAdvisor, and others. Google, which is in the initial phases of becoming a short-term rental platform, may also find itself subject to toeing the regulatory line.
The Airbnb-Boston pact (see settlement agreement embedded below) enables the two parties, "upon request from Airbnb," to confer about compliance with the city's ordinance when any "platform operating as a booking agent" doesn't have an agreement with the city.
The informat
