Airbnb launched a report displaying hosts within the Austin metro space welcomed almost 1.4 million visitor arrivals who contributed an estimated $1.2 billion in native financial exercise in 2023.1
The report gives data-driven insights into the advantages dwelling sharing brings to the better Austin space. By welcoming company into their houses who then spend cash on native companies, hosts within the Austin metro space helped help roughly 14,800 jobs2 and generate $269 million in complete tax income.3
Internet hosting on Airbnb can also be an important supply of supplemental earnings for native residents. In line with a 2023 survey of hosts within the Austin metro space, 52 % mentioned the earnings earned via internet hosting has helped them keep of their dwelling, whereas 15 % mentioned internet hosting helped them keep away from foreclosures or eviction. For almost all of hosts in Austin, eliminating the income earned via Airbnb can be a significant monetary blow, in some circumstances undermining their capacity to afford to stay within the area.
“This new evaluation underscores how dwelling sharing is a vital financial engine for the Austin space, permitting residents to show their dwelling right into a supply of additional earnings that helps them afford to stay in Austin, whereas guaranteeing neighborhoods and companies throughout the Metropolis profit from tourism,” mentioned Luis Briones, Airbnb Senior Public Coverage Supervisor. “We hope Austin leaders will use these findings to make sure hosts, company, and the better Austin neighborhood can proceed to get pleasure from the advantages of dwelling sharing.”
The report additionally analyzes the housing market within the better Austin space—a area that has seen vital financial modifications and a doubling of its city inhabitants measurement since 1990. Pushed largely by these broader shifts, housing prices started rising larger than earnings lengthy earlier than Airbnb was even based. Whereas rents and residential costs in Austin have seen some current declines as extra provide has been added over the previous yr, essentially the most vital long-term driver of rising housing prices within the area is persistent underproduction of latest housing over a few years.
In line with Airbnb’s evaluation, 481,000 housing models would have wanted to be added within the Austin metro space over the past 5 years to stabilize hire progress on the price of inflation, however solely 178,000 models have been really constructed over that point.4 In contrast, whole dwelling listings on Airbnb booked for greater than 90 nights a yr characterize simply 0.5 % of the Austin metro space’s 1 million housing models.5
There may be additionally little proof that rules aimed toward limiting short-term leases have efficiently introduced down housing prices. For instance, after New York Metropolis applied strict rules eradicating 1000’s of short-term leases, rents nonetheless increased by 3.4 % through the first 11 months of the regulation and emptiness charges remained unchanged. The first beneficiaries of New York Metropolis’s rules have been motels, which noticed costs rise by 7.4 % over the previous yr.
Airbnb stays dedicated to working with Austin leaders to pioneer modern options to help accountable tourism. We’ve got lengthy advocated for a degree enjoying discipline for short-term rental platforms to gather and remit native tourism taxes on behalf of hosts in Austin and cities all through Texas. In truth, Airbnb has tax agreements with Houston, Corpus Christi, Plano, and different cities throughout Texas to gather native lodge occupancy taxes (HOT) on all transactions made on our platform and remit them on to the native jurisdiction. By permitting platforms to gather and remit native HOT on behalf of hosts in Austin, the Metropolis has the potential to each streamline the gathering course of and enhance tax income, together with for native arts initiatives, which obtain almost 10 % of all native HOT in Austin.
View the complete report here.
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