The Airbnb Dilemma: Regulate or Not?

Revenue growth in the rental of dwellings in Virginia through Airbnb has outstripped the rental of single rooms. Source: “2017 State of the Commonwealth Report”

Airbnb, the website that allows homeowners to rent rooms and houses for short periods, no longer occupies an obscure niche in the Virginia lodging marketplace. The company is capturing a disproportionate share of growth in lodging industry rooms and revenues, and it depresses the ability of hotels to raise rates during periods of peak demand, concludes the “2017 State of the Commonwealth Report.”

The number of Virginia listings has surged from just over 2,000 in October 2014 to 10,400 in October 2017. Total revenue has increased over the same period from $1.52 million to $17.4 million. Airbnb share of the lodging market rose from less than a half percent to nearly 4.7%.

“While the Airbnb rental sector may be smaller than the traditional lodging sector, Airbnb is a rising competitor,” write Robert M. McNabb and James V. Koch, the lead authors of the report.

The image most people have of Airbnb participants is of homeowners renting out a spare room for pin money. But the data suggest that it’s becoming an increasingly big business in which property owners are renting entire dwellings. While private room revenues increased sixfold over the three-year period studied, the rental of entire places increased thirteenfold, as seen in the chart above.

That reality has implications for how Airbnb should be regulated. Whole-house oceanfront rentals in Virginia Beach have generated numerous complaints regarding unruly behavior, illegal parking, and trash. The lodging industry has argued that Airbnb rentals should be taxed on the same basis and should meet the same regulatory standards as hotels and motels are.

McNabb and Koch are sympathetic to Airbnb to a degree.

It is not the job of government to protect existing firms and industries from new, more efficient or more attractive competitors that would serve consumers better and do so at lower prices. … Enabling citizen consumers to spend their dollars where they wish is a welfare-maximizing stance for government to adopt. … As a rule, challenging competing firms to meet “the market test” — that is offer goods and services at prices and levels of quality that are attractive consumers… — not only is an equitable approach that treats all citizens and firms the same, but also generates the best overall results for the citizenry.

However, they add an important caveat: Government should not intervene as long as the use of Airbnb “does not generate undesirable side effects such as pollution, noise, traffic congestion, crime, unsanitary conditions that impact the public health, and the like.”

While some Airbnb hosts have consciously evaded city regulations and taxes, it does not necessarily follow that localities should devote substantial resources to cracking down on them. Single-room hosts account for a small percentage of rooms, revenues and taxes, and they are rarely the source of behavioral problems. They go in and out of the market, and they’re difficult to identify and force to comply. The payoff for local governments is low.

Cities would do better to devote scarce enforcement sources going after Airbnb hosts offering their entire place for rent. “Plainly speaking, this is where the revenue is and evidence suggests that any behavioral problems that Airbnb generates are concentrated among these properties as well.”

Meanwhile, the authors advise hotels operators to re-evaluate their pricing and quality strategies. “Airbnb and similar rental hosting firms are not going to go away.”