HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-24-17 Public Comment - A. Kalloch - Short Term RentalsFrom: Andrew Kalloch
To: Carson Taylor; Agenda
Cc: Cyndy Andrus; Chris Mehl; I-Ho Pomeroy; Jeff Krauss
Subject: Re: Airbnb and STR in Bozeman -- Testimony Attached
Date: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 7:07:06 PM
Attachments: Bozeman Mont. Testimony Airbnb 1.24.17.pdf
Good evening, Mayor Taylor, Deputy Mayor Andrus, and Commissioners. In anticipation of your final public hearing tonight,
I wanted to pass along the attached written testimony of Airbnb.
I look forward to hearing more about the feedback you've received (we've heard from several hosts directly) and how we can
work together on STR regulations in the months to come.
All best,
Andrew Kalloch
On Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 10:11 AM, Andrew Kalloch <andrew.kalloch@airbnb.com> wrote:
Good morning, Mayor Taylor, Deputy Mayor Andrus, and Commissioners. My name is Andrew Kalloch and I work in
Public Policy for Airbnb.
It has come to our attention that Bozeman is considering new short-term rental (STR) rules. We are grateful for your
careful work on this issue. Indeed, there are few municipalities in the country that have done the type of multi-pronged
public outreach of Bozeman. We hope you don't mind if we share your approach with other cities that are considering how
to regulate STR.
In anticipation of tonight's public hearing, we wanted to pass along some additional information about Airbnb in Montana
in general and Bozeman in particular that may be of use in your deliberations.
Attached to this email are the following:
1. A cover letter, which cites key statistics for Montana and Bozeman.
2. Two one-page briefings on our Trust and Safety efforts and our new Neighbors tool.
3. A series of regulatory models that have recently been enacted or introduced in Philadelphia, Louisville, and
Worcester, Mass (a similarly-sized, college town), that protect public safety while fostering the economic
opportunity of home sharing.
Home sharing is an important and growing part of the region's economy and we are proud to be part of the economic
potential it provides for Montana families, neighborhoods, and communities.
Thank you again for your time and don't hesitate to reach out if you have questions.
All best,
Andrew Kalloch
--
Andrew L. Kalloch
Public Policy
andrew.kalloch@airbnb.com
--
Andrew L. Kalloch
Public Policy
andrew.kalloch@airbnb.com
Testimony of Andrew L. Kalloch, Public Policy, Airbnb
Short Term Rentals in Bozeman, Mont.
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Good evening. My name is Andrew Kalloch and I am a lawyer working in Public Policy
for Airbnb.
I welcome the opportunity to submit public testimony concerning how reasonable
regulation can help to foster responsible home sharing in your community.
Airbnb was launched in 2008 with a single listing in a single apartment in San
Francisco. Our founders-- recent (and unemployed) graduates of the Rhode Island
School of Design-- were struggling to afford an increasingly expensive housing market
and decided to open up their own home to host other artists who were in town for a
design conference.
Eight years later, that single home share has turned into a platform that has brought
over 100 million guests to nearly 3 million listings in 34,000 cities in nearly every
country across the globe.
Of course, while Airbnb has used the power of the internet to bring together millions of
hosts and guests, Montanans are well aware that home sharing didn’t start with Airbnb.
Rather, it is a historic tradition-- in this state and others.
With beautiful sites from Bozeman to Billings, Whitefish to West Yellowstone, it is no
surprise that short term rentals have long been an important component of the Big Sky
economy.
Airbnb is proud to be part of this tradition. In 2016, 1,800 Montanans welcomed 77,000
guests. In addition, 54,000 Montana residents used Airbnb to travel domestically and
abroad.
The vast majority of these hosts are individuals and families who share their homes
occasionally to pay for their mortgage, medicine, and student loans, or save money for
retirement or a rainy day.
Furthermore, unlike other types of lodging, such as multinational hotel chains, 97
percent of revenue generated through Airbnb goes directly to our hosts, who plow it
back into the local economy.
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As the State’s fourth largest city by population, it is no surprise that Bozeman is home to
a robust community of Airbnb hosts and users. In the last year:
● There were 300 Active Hosts who welcomed 13,000 guests to 350 listings, with
the typical host earning $5,500 over the course of the year.
● 72 percent of Bozeman hosts are women, with the average host age being 44.
● 37 percent of hosts are over 50. Supplemental income from STR is particularly
important to this population, which often struggles to “age in place” on fixed
incomes.
● The typical listing was rented for 49 nights, highlighting the fact that most hosts
are not full-time commercial operators, but instead rent out their home or a
portion of their home during vacations or other times when they are out of town.
In fact, nearly 80 percent of listings are rented for fewer than 90 days a year, with
only 5 percent of listings renting for more than 180 days a year.
● Guests stayed an average of 3.3 nights per stay, with an average group size of only
2.4 people, showing that short-term rentals on Airbnb are primarily couples and
families.
● The average age of guests was 40.
● In addition to those who visited Bozeman using Airbnb, 12,000 Bozeman
residents used Airbnb to travel elsewhere in the U.S. and abroad in 2016.
Home sharing is particularly valuable in college towns like Bozeman, which welcome
large numbers of visitors during commencement weekends, making it difficult (or
expensive) for graduating students’ families to book traditional accommodations like
hotels.
With Airbnb, visiting families can access an alternative way to travel — one that delivers
economic benefits to the college towns and cities, not only through the income earned
by hosts, but also via the money guests spend at local businesses around their listings.
Airbnb has grown dramatically in recent years and one of the reasons for our success
has been our investments in innovative tools to protect hosts, guests, and neighbors:
● Airbnb uses sophisticated technologies and behavioral analysis techniques to
help prevent potentially troublesome hosts or guests from utilizing the platform
in the first place. For U.S. residents, Airbnb also runs host and guest information
through several public databases to check if there are matches with certain felony
convictions, sex offender registrations, or significant misdemeanors.
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● Airbnb maximizes transparency by allowing hosts to require that guests provide a
government ID, and we created a program called Verified ID, which connects a
person’s offline identification (a driver's license or passport) with another online
profile to their Airbnb account, such as Facebook, Google, or LinkedIn accounts.
● Airbnb encourages hosts and guests to communicate and get to know one another
before a trip occurs. Like other online platforms like Ebay, our community builds
trust and a track record for users to be able to learn more about each other
through publicly available reviews and feedback.
● We offer $1 million Host Protection Insurance and a $1 million Host Guarantee
to help protect hosts and guests.
● If a guest or a host ever have an issue, our global Trust and Safety team is on call
24/7 to help.
● Earlier this year, we launched the Neighbors platform-- a tool that allows people
who may not even use Airbnb to report potential concerns directly to our staff for
review. We’ve already taken action in response to complaints about specific
listings and we will continue to take appropriate action where there is a pattern of
problematic behavior by hosts or guests.
These tools have contributed to the rapid rise of short term rentals on our platform.
As a result, on behalf of our hosts, guests, and the company, I want to thank the
members of this committee for your diligent work examining short term rentals and the
economic opportunity they provide to families throughout Bozeman.
While many cities have refused to work with us on comprehensive regulations and failed
to do their homework on this growing industry, you have taken a different approach.
Indeed, there are few municipalities in the country that have done the type of
multi-pronged public outreach of Bozeman. And for that we are grateful and you should
be proud.
Our hope is that the regulations that emerge from your efforts will safeguard quality of
life, while ensuring that residents can continue to responsibly share their homes. This is
particularly important for low and middle-income seniors, many of whom are on fixed
incomes, and Millennials, who face daunting student debt and a challenging job market
even years after the Great Recession.
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Bozeman should follow the lead of other municipalities--from big cities like Philadelphia
and Denver to smaller municipalities like South Lake Tahoe and Worcester, Mass.
(another mid-sized college town)-- that have passed comprehensive regulations that
recognize the benefits of responsible home sharing, while establishing systems that
provide regulators with tools to protect public safety.
These cities have acknowledged that all individuals, whether renters or homeowners,
should be able to share their homes to make ends meet and that occasionally renting a
home does not transform the property into a commercial hotel any more than a garage
sale transforms a home into a mall or providing music lessons to local kids turns one’s
home into Symphony Hall.
Airbnb supports nuanced regulations and believes that short term rentals on Airbnb
should be taxed like any other transient lodging. Since 2014, the company has signed
voluntary collection agreements (VCA) with over 200 jurisdictions around the world.
These VCAs have enabled us to collect over $175 million to fund critical public services. 1
All told, we appreciate the thoughtfulness and diligence of Mayor Taylor, Deputy Mayor
Andrus, and the Commissioners and look forward to working with each of you to ensure
that Bozeman’s STR regulations can be a model for other cities across the country.
Thank you.
1https://www.airbnbcitizen.com/report-airbnbs-growth-sends-potential-tax-revenue-cities-soaring/.
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