Agenda Packet 9-23-19 Work Session

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Pacific Northwest cities hire outside vendors to police short-term rentals. Ton Banse. Oregon Public Broadcasting. Aug. 27, 2018. https://www.opb.org/news/article/pacific-northwest-airbnb-vacation-rentals-regulations/ Attitudes toward STRs and Airbnb Anyone hoping to create policies on STRs will have to address strong opinions held by the public regarding both the practice and its dominant platform. Among many factors that can shape these opinions are evidence, self-interest, group membership, and personal visions that predate the other three. “Independent visual storyteller, community activist and technologist” Murray Cox’s Inside Airbnb site uses datasets that those with computer skills can use to analyze the company’s impact in various cities in the United States and worldwide. He also has a number of highly critical and contentious articles about negative aspects of the company’s presence, for instance as a gentrification tool favoring whites over blacks. Airbnb Citizen, by contrast, has dozens of articles highlighting positive impacts the company has made for hosts, guests, localities, even whole nations. It’s hardly a revelation that Airbnb Citizen is a product of Airbnb itself. With attractive design and a seeming requirement for anyone in a photograph to be beaming joyfully, it backs up claims in the articles with statistics, but no peeks behind them for methodology or data. To be fair, some articles provide links intended to help hosts comply with local rules, and topics such as accessibility to the disabled are covered. The Airbnb Analyst lands somewhere in between the two opposing sites, though its articles lean more toward the critical. They feature stories on every topic of contention involving the company, although the stories are not quite fresh (nothing past 2017). Their factsheets are aimed at providing information for those looking to regulate STRs, and its author is an innkeeper in Portland. AirDNA is a fee-based tool apparently aimed at STR enterpreneurs whose “unlocked” (free) search allows a search by city to show a map of STR locations; general statistics on average price, occupancy rates, revenue, rental size and amenities, as well as a breakdown by platform (at the moment in Eugene, it’s 84% Airbnb, 6% Homeaway, 10% both). These are just numbers and can be used by both friends and foes of Airbnb and STRs. It can be argued that Airbnb Citizen’s tools for persuasion come from the potential, while Inside Airbnb’s come from the actual. Inside Airbnb points out that Airbnb Citizen advances the interests of Airbnb and that its studies are framed to flatter the company, and is among many who mention Airbnb is unforthcoming with the actual data behind what amount to press releases. But the downsides pointed out by detractors are sometimes “potential” as well. Many of the studies cited make claims that are not disproven, but might be accepted in a milder form. It is difficult to separate out all relevant factors. The study by Barron et al is the most complete study of the housing September 23, 2019, Work Session – Item 3