Report reveals impact of Airbnb on New York hotels
The Airbnb effect is costing the conventional hotel industry nearly a half billion dollars a year in New York.
So says a study by the Hotel Association of New York City, which has for the first time put a monetary figure on the impact of Airbnb in the city.
The association estimates Airbnb booked $451.4 million in gross revenue in New York in the year through August 31, 2015.
This will rise to $805.3 million by 2018, it said.
"Obviously, some of the revenue that would have gone to the hotel industry is now going there (to Airbnb)," said Vijay Dandapani, chairman of the association.
Airbnb processed 2.9 million stays in the Big Apple in the 2015 fiscal year, about 7.8% of the total of all overnight stays.
However Airbnb says it is generating more visitor traffic into New York rather than merely cutting into hotels’ bottom line.
"The entire report is based on the false assumption that our guests would have otherwise stayed in a hotel room. In fact, without Airbnb many of these travellers wouldn’t be able to visit New York City at all or would have cut their trip short," said Nick Papas, a spokesman for Airbnb.
Airbnb also questioned whether the city of New York and New Yorkers themselves are benefiting from hotel industry profits.
"While the big hotels have been clear that they are concerned about losing the opportunity to price gouge consumers, we hope they will disclose the percent of their profits that stay in New York City and the percent they send to corporate headquarters outside of New York and, even, outside of the country," Papas added.
The study actually calculates a total loss of $2.1 billion to the hotel industry through a reduction in hotel food spending of $88.9 million, loss of lodging tax revenue and about $1 billion in construction activity.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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