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What'll It Take to Survive in Short-Term Rentals: Former Top Airbnb Exec

Brian Sumers

Photo Credit: Laurence "L.T." A. Tosi (left), WestCap founder and managing partner, speaks on stage at Skift Short-Term Rental Summit in New York City on December 5, 2019 Skift

Skift Take

People may see short-term rentals as a good get-rich-quick scheme. But according to former Airbnb CFO Laurence Tosi, it's not a simple business. The most successful companies in the space, he said, are also the most sophisticated.

Short-term rentals is a scale business in which only the largest and most sophisticated players can thrive. That was the prognosis from Laurence "L.T." A. Tosi, former Airbnb chief financial officer and founder and managing partner of WestCap, an investment firm active in the space, at Skift Short-Term Rental Summit in New York City. "The reason we like the business is because it's hard," he said on Thursday. "It takes technology. It takes knowledge." Tosi, who remains a major investor in Airbnb, noted that in the early days, the company

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