Another host, Anthony Farmer, filed a class action lawsuit against Airbnb in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in November. The case, which seeks to ignore Airbnb’s arbitration terms, accuses the company of violating its contract and fiduciary duty and violating consumer protection laws.
Christopher Nulty, an Airbnb spokesman, said the company’s policies put public health and safety first, which will ultimately help host by maintaining high gas loyalty and the demand for Airbnb deals. “He said that Mr. Farmer’s suit was without merit.
‘Back to our roots’
In May, Airbnb announced that it would “go back to our roots” by focusing on “everyday people who house their homes”.
This position has business benefits. It seems that professional rental operators with many offers are taking away housing and converting neighborhoods into tourist areas, causing politicians and neighborhood associations to introduce regulations. A family renting an extra bedroom often seems less threatening.
In a financial prospectus in November, Airbnb said 90 percent of its hosts were ‘individual hosts’, defined as those who created their listings directly on the site instead of using specialized software to sign up. According to Transparent, a software provider for short-term rental businesses, only 37 percent of Airbnb’s listings as of September were managed by people with one property. About half of the complete list is managed by hosts with two to 20 properties, and 14 percent by hosts with 21 or more.
When Airbnb emphasized the individual hosts, it further annoyed its professional hosts.
“Their business is built on professional hosts in a way, but they don’t say that often,” he said. Vail, the operator in Columbus, said. “They do not want the message to be the headline.”
Mr. Nulty said Airbnb’s focus on ‘core hosts’ does not come at the expense of professional hosts. He said professional hosts were represented on the Host Advisory Board, a group the company set up in October to allow hosts to meet with Airbnb executives.