Coming on the heels of numerous reports about tenants home-sharing their apartments without landlord knowledge or approval, Forbes is reporting that Airbnb has been working on a new program that will bring owners and landlords of multifamily buildings into its home-sharing service. Airbnb calls it the Friendly Building Program, a new initiative that will let building owners sign up to work with Airbnb and tenants to allow home-sharing on their properties according to mutually agreed upon rules. Airbnb will collect and pay applicable taxes and as well as paying the hosts and the landlords – reportedly around 5% – 15% of their tenants earnings from the program. Not too shabby.
“The program works like this: Building owners—provided they operate in a jurisdiction where short-term rental laws are clear, meaning that there’s no ambiguity nor potential for a regulatory mess—apply for the program. Once accepted, the owner then decides the terms (which units, for how long, revenue division, etc.) under which tenants can rent out their homes and submits them to Airbnb as well as amends its tenants’ leases. Eligible tenants in that can then sign up for their building’s program through Airbnb, and become part of the regular reports the company sends to the landlord.”
Click here to read the full story on Forbes.com
UPDATE:
A new survey from the National Multifamily Housing Council shows that one third of leading multifamily firms are open to home sharing:
“The survey, fielded September 7-12, includes responses from 79 firm leaders, covering a third of the NMHC 50 largest apartment owners and managers and more than one million apartment homes. One-third (33 percent) are open to a partnership program similar to what Airbnb announced today, while another 42 percent said they weren’t interested; the remainder responding that they did not know.”
“Short-term rentals have sparked lively debates among multifamily firms, and reactions cut across the spectrum. We appreciate efforts from Airbnb to work with our members in trying to address the myriad of legal, regulatory and operational issues that come from home sharing. Today’s announcement shows a maturation of this new industry,” said NMHC President and CEO Doug Bibby.”
Click here to read the full release at NMHC.org.
