Airbnb Launches Short-Term Apartment Rental-Listing Site

Airbnb continues its efforts to partner with multifamily housing operators on apartment home-sharing, revenue-sharing and the short-term rental model.

It has been about seven years since Airbnb began its outreach –with mixed results – and this week, it launched a listing service for rental apartments with some of the most prominent owners and property managers in the country.

The company said it’s looking to expand its business in “flexible living” as it’s referred to in buildings where owners historically forbid residents from listing their apartments on Airbnb or other short-term rental sites.

In the past, its partnership programs have either been soundly rejected by operators and their residents or warmly embraced. If nothing else, Airbnb has shed a bright light on the potential for ancillary income for operators and extra cash for their residents.

Short-Term-Rental Listings Only

This latest service includes more than 175 buildings managed by Equity Residential, Greystar Real Estate Partners and 10 other companies, Airbnb said on Nov. 30.

The site will act as a listing platform for rental apartments that is similar to ILSs’, but it will only include properties where residents are permitted to list their units on Airbnb. Residents who sign a lease can sublease their units for a fixed number of days a year, depending on the building owner and/or local laws, but not more than 180 days.

Owners who partner with the service will get a share of the total booking revenue from Airbnb sublets—20% in most cases.

Prior to COVID-19, the popularity of home-sharing bred many short-term rental operators, many of which have failed based on their business plans, COVID travel restrictions, local regulations, or rejection by residents and owners.

Post-COVID-19, there has been a resurgence of traction around home sharing in apartments and an emergence of a second-generation cohort comprised of a few pre-COVID survivors and many new post-pandemic entrants who are using lessons learned to provide more robust offerings and business models to the multifamily industry.

Highlighting ‘Flexible Living’ is ‘Long Overdue’

Todd Butler, senior vice president, Migo – RealPage’s multifamily flexible living product partnered with Airbnb – took note of Airbnb’s recent announcement, tells GlobeSt.com that he’s “thrilled that Airbnb is continuing to elevate the flexible living conversation in the apartment space and it’s clear that residents are looking for more mobility and new ways to live in a post-COVID-19 landscape.”

Migo launched late last year and is promoted as providing essential multifamily-focused controls, transparency, and integrations that enhance Airbnb’s offering for home sharing in class A urban properties.

On the timing of the Airbnb release, Butler said, “given the speculative outlook on the economy for both owners and residents, launching an ILS that highlights these unique living and income opportunities is welcome and long overdue and ‘flexible living’ as a search filter in traditional ILSs is something I have been lobbying for since 2018.”

Jan Freitag, national director for hospitality market analytics, CoStar, tells GlobeSt.com, “For operators, this is an interesting approach on how they can drive revenue through short-term rentals of homes in between leases, or by marketing this option, as such, to their existing residents who want to earn extra income. Given the Airbnb brand, these operators can benefit from the company’s brand recognition.”