Most of Airbnb revenues come from people renting entire homes that they don’t live in, according to a study, which suggested “hosts” are getting a tax break compared with the traditional lodging industry.
A study released Wednesday by real estate company CBRE, and commissioned by Ottawa-based Hotel Association of Canada, which represents more than 8,000 hotels, motels and resorts, says 83 per cent of Airbnb’s total revenue comes from hosts renting entire home units where the owner is not present.
“That’s people who are renting multiple homes or multiple units across the city. They are really running a business and because they are running it through a platform they are able to skirt the rules,” said Susie Grynol, president of the association. The hotel market is worth $18.4 billion annually, and directly and indirectly employs 304,000 people across the country.
The study looked at a 12-month period from April 2016 to March 2017 and found there are about 70,000 Airbnb host owners with more than 100,500 listings in Canada that generated $500 million in revenue. The number of Airbnb hosts, units and revenue has nearly doubled over the past year.
About 70 per cent of units listed on the Airbnb platform in Canada are entire home rentals – guests have complete and sole access to the entire unit during their stay, according to the researchers. Hosts renting out two or more entire-home units generated more than $238 million in revenue in the past two years. Based on the past 12-month period, multi-unit hosts make up seven per cent of all Airbnb hosts in Canada and account for 19 per cent of units and more than 30 per cent of the revenue generated.
“What we are shining a light on here is the increase and the dramatic growth in commercial activity and calling on the government at all levels to level the playing field,” Grynol said.
