Airbnb contains a wealth of information on travel trends that hotels and other businesses in the tourist industry can benefit from, said Thomas Caton, chief revenue officer of the data analysis startup AirDNA, during the ITB Convention in Berlin.
“Hotels increasingly sound like a group of sailors who complain about the sea,” said Caton. “But Airbnb is here to stay and we all need to figure out how to fit into a changed ecosystem.”
Analyzing data gathered from Airbnb can lead to some interesting findings and help the hospitality industry and local policymakers solve planning and licensing issues.
An increase in Airbnb rentals in a particular neighborhood, for example, suggests that visitors are more interested in going there and that more accommodation would be needed.
“Airbnb a useful precursor for where to build a new hotel,” said Caton. “This indicates new trends on the market and shows what will be popular next, so you can start to plan your hotel.”
And in some countries, Airbnb is taking on excess demand the hotel industry cannot fulfill rather than post a direct threat to its existence, he said.
The city of Kyoto in Japan, for example, saw “extraordinary growth” of 316 percent of the number of Airbnb properties for rent after the city changed laws in 2016 to allow more short-term rentals, said Caton.
“But hotels in the city are still seeing 95 percent occupancy rates,” he said. “There’s been little impact on their business, which suggests Airbnb is allowing the city to cope with enormous demand for travel in Kyoto.”
Trying to ban Airbnb outright on the other hand is counterproductive, as it deprives cities of much needed revenue and drives the short-term rental economy underground where it is harder to police, he said.
“New York could bring in $62 million in tax revenues by simply taxing Airbnb and having well-streamed regulatory system,” he said. “That brings the entire ecosystem under your control.”
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