Another host, Anthony Farmer, filed a class-action lawsuit against Airbnb in the U.S. District Court for the Northern California District in November. The lawsuit, which seeks to overturn 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 policy puts public health and safety first, which would ultimately help hosts “maintain high guest loyalty and demand for Airbnb listings”. He said the Farmer lawsuit was without merit.
‘Back to our roots’
In May, Airbnb announced that it would “go back to our roots” by focusing on “ordinary people who host their homes”.
This position has commercial advantages. Professional rental operators with many listings may appear to take housing and turn neighborhoods into tourist areas, causing politicians and neighborhood associations to enforce regulations. A family that rents an extra room usually looks less threatening.
In a financial prospectus in November, Airbnb said that 90% of its hosts were “individual hosts”, defined as those who created their listings directly on the website instead of using specialized software to sign up. But according to Transparent, a software provider for short-term rental operators, only 37 percent of Airbnb listings were managed by people with a property in September. Approximately half of the listings were managed by hosts with 2 to 20 properties and 14% by hosts with 21 or more properties.
So when Airbnb emphasized individual hosts, it further angered its professional hosts.
“Their business is based on professional hosts, in a way, but they don’t usually say that,” said Vail, the operator in Columbus. “They don’t want that message to be the title.”
Mr. Nulty said that Airbnb’s focus on “primary hosts” did not come at the expense of professional hosts. He said professional hosts are represented on its Hosting Advisory Board, a group the company created in October so that hosts can meet with Airbnb executives.