Posts Tagged: "Airbnb"

Airbnb lawsuit against San Francisco responds to increased regulations as room-sharing competitors enter market

The San Francisco-based online lodging rental company Airbnb is proving to be very disruptive to the hotel industry…. Despite the growing regulatory dustup concerning Airbnb, the short-term rental market continues to thicken with competitors. In July, the on-demand room sharing service Overnight launched in New York City after offering listings in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Austin, TX. The app only had about 4,500 hosts in its total network but it allows host to list shared room accommodations instead of a full apartment and encourages quick responses to reservation requests within a 10-minute window. Some competitors are rushing in to serve consumers who have been let down by their own experiences with Airbnb.

Steve Brachmann

July 20, 2016

As Airbnb disrupts the hotel industry it increases D.C. lobbying

This increased political exposure across the nation is likely a big reason why Airbnb is increasing its DC lobbying arsenal by hiring former Congressman Vin Weber and the public affairs firm Mercury… Airbnb hosts are given a large say in who gets to stay in their rental accommodations, as is evidenced by the filing of U.S. Patent Application No. 20160098649, entitled Determining Host Preferences for Accommodation Listings. This would protect a computer implemented method of identifying listings sharing a common attribute, determining patterns in host acceptance or rejection of reservation requests and then creating a cluster pattern value which determines whether a new reservation request is likely to be accepted or rejected by the host. Interestingly, this invention is designed to incorporate a host’s “implicit” preferences which “are not easily quantifiable.”

Steve Brachmann

May 23, 2016