Airbnb News

Airbnb chose Tinseltown to audaciously begin cracking down on party houses. Good PR. Expect to see more adjustments in Airbnb policy as it moves forward with an emphasis on community safety and standards.

The Guild, a hospitality startup, is not quite a hotel but not quite Airbnb. It's betting on $25 million in new funding to expand its apartment-like accommodations to urban centers to attract more business travelers.

Airbnb overtook Expedia in room nights booked in the first quarter of 2019, but questions loom for 2020. Will Airbnb lose its focus as it vows to go public and become a broader online travel agency? Will Expedia, which seems lost in terms of creating a revised strategy, find its way? So many headlines to come.

The tug-of-war between hotels and short-term rentals intensified in 2019, with both sides making strategic moves to display their strength. There were wins and losses for everyone, and the result so far has been a deeper blurring of the lines between the two sectors.

Nobody has found the best formula for regulation of the short-term rental industry. But hotel groups and rental platforms both realize that the outcomes of early battles will set precedents for future laws. This might explain why they are so willing to confront and call each other out publicly.

Many Airbnb hosts of the mom-and-pop variety — yes, there are a few left — feel aggrieved when they welcome guests into their homes and have to bear the consequences of hostile reviews penned with the worst intentions. Airbnb is trying to tip the balance back toward hosts — and is probably making neither party totally happy.

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.

In the wake of recent bad publicity and plans to go public in 2020, Airbnb has no choice but to take concerns among users and neighbors seriously. Its recent steps are a good start, but shouldn't these have been a part of the strategy to begin with?

Airbnb has intensified its testing of Google's vacation rentals business. Does this mean Airbnb will fall down a rabbit hole of Google dependence? Not necessarily. Romances can be so fleeting.

It's all about its anticipated public offering at Airbnb these days. Shore up the plethora of safety issues, make peace with regulators, and bring in seasoned operational executives that the Wall Street crowd will look favorably upon. Was Belinda Johnson a casualty in that push?