Airbnb continues its efforts to partner with multifamily housing operators on apartment colocation, revenue sharing, and the short-term rental model.
It’s been about seven years since Airbnb began its outreach – with mixed results – and this week it launched a rental apartment listing service with some of the country’s most prominent property owners and managers.
The company said it was looking to expand its business in “flexible living,” as it’s called in buildings where landlords historically prohibit residents from listing their apartments on Airbnb or other search sites. short term rental.
In the past, its partnership programs have been either firmly rejected by operators and their residents or warmly welcomed. At least Airbnb has shed light on the potential for ancillary revenue for operators and extra money for their residents.
Short Term Rental Listings Only
The latter service includes more than 175 properties managed by Equity Residential, Greystar Real Estate Partners and 10 other companies, Airbnb said Nov. 30.
The site will act as a listing platform for rental apartments similar to ILS, but it will only include properties where residents are allowed to list their units on Airbnb. Residents who sign a lease may sublet their units for a fixed number of days per year, depending on the building owner and/or local laws, but no more than 180 days.
Landlords who partner with the service will receive a share of the total revenue from Airbnb sublet bookings, 20% in most cases.
Prior to COVID-19, the popularity of home sharing spawned many short-term rental operators, many of which failed due to their business plans, COVID travel restrictions, local regulations, or rejection by residents. and owners.
Post-COVID-19, there has been a resurgence of traction around apartment-sharing and the emergence of a second-generation cohort made up of a few pre-COVID survivors and many post-pandemic new entrants who are using lessons learned to provide more robust offerings and business models to the multifamily industry.
Highlighting ‘flexible living’ is ‘long overdue’
Todd Butler, senior vice president, Migo – RealPage’s multi-family flexible living product in partnership with Airbnb – took note of Airbnb’s recent announcement, telling GlobeSt.com that he was “delighted that Airbnb continues to elevate the flexible living conversation in the apartment space and it’s clear that residents are looking for more mobility and new ways to live in a post-COVID-19 landscape.”
Migo launched late last year and is touted as providing essential multi-family-focused controls, transparency and integrations that enhance Airbnb’s offering for home sharing in urban Class A properties. .
Regarding the timing of Airbnb’s release, Butler said, “Given the speculative outlook on the economy for owners and residents, the launch of an ILS that highlights these unique living and income opportunities is the welcome and long-awaited and ‘flexible life’ as a search filter in traditional ILS is something I’ve been lobbying for since 2018.”
Jan Freitag, National Director of Hotel Market Analysis, CoStar, told GlobeSt.com: “For operators, this is an exciting approach to how they can generate revenue through rental at short-term homes between leases, or by marketing this option, as such, to their current residents who want to earn additional income.Given the Airbnb brand, these operators can benefit from the company’s brand recognition. »
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