Short-term Rental Platforms Research Articles

Quantitative Analysis of the Future of the Sharing Economy, Housing, White-Collar Labor Markets, and Problems in Big Cities

This research project explores the future of the sharing economy and its profound effects on housing markets, white-collar labor dynamics, and socio-economic challenges in large metropolitan areas. Using quantitative economics and econometric techniques, the study evaluates how platforms such as Airbnb, Uber, and coworking spaces are reshaping urban life, exacerbating housing affordability issues, and altering labor market structures. By analyzing housing market data, labor statistics, and platform economy data from major cities like New York, London, and Istanbul, this research provides empirical insights into how the sharing economy influences urban economic landscapes. The study employs difference-in-differences (DiD) and multivariate regression models to assess causal relationships, particularly in terms of housing market disruptions caused by short-term rental platforms and labor market fragmentation driven by the rise of gig and remote work. Spatial econometric techniques are also used to explore geographic disparities in housing and employment impacts across urban districts. Preliminary findings indicate that the proliferation of sharing economy platforms has contributed to housing shortages and increased prices in central urban areas, while labor markets experience growing polarization, with high-skilled workers benefiting from remote work opportunities and low-skilled gig workers facing economic precarity. This research offers valuable policy insights into the regulation of short-term rentals and the protection of gig economy workers, highlighting the need for regulatory frameworks that address urban inequality and labor market shifts. By integrating data from multiple sources, this study contributes to the academic discourse on urban economics and provides a framework for understanding the long-term socio-economic implications of the sharing economy in big cities.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Airbnb Listings in New York City: Challenges and Opportunities for Urban Housing Sustainability

Short-term rental (STR) platforms like Airbnb have significantly impacted urban housing sustainability, particularly in cities like New York City. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the STR market, raising questions about its resilience and effects on sustainable urban housing. This study addresses the following research questions: (1) How did unit and neighborhood characteristics influence the survival of Airbnb listings during the pandemic? (2) What changes occurred in the factors determining the emergence of new listings during the pandemic? Using data from Inside Airbnb, we applied Cox proportional hazard models and negative binomial regression to analyze changes before and after the pandemic. We found that during the pandemic, price discounts became crucial for listing survival, while traditional quality indicators like superhost status and high ratings lost significance. The importance of subway accessibility decreased, reflecting shifts in traveler preferences. Additionally, new listings were less likely to emerge in high-density Airbnb areas and more likely in neighborhoods with higher crime rates. These findings highlight the need for sustainable regulatory approaches that balance the benefits of STR platforms with protecting housing affordability and community well-being. Our study provides insights for policymakers aiming to promote sustainable urban housing during global crises.

The Impact of Airbnb Expansion on Real Estate Speculation in Marseille’s Tourist Areas

This paper investigates the impact of Airbnb’s expansion on real estate speculation in Marseille’s tourist areas, particularly focusing on the Old Port and Le Panier districts. By analyzing the correlation between the growth of short-term rental platforms and the increase in property values, the study explores how Airbnb has transformed the housing market, contributing to speculative investment and gentrification. The research examines the reduction in long-term rental housing, the rising cost of property, and the displacement of local residents as key outcomes of Airbnb’s proliferation. Through comparisons with similar European cities such as Paris and Madrid, the paper highlights the socio-economic consequences of Airbnb-driven real estate speculation, including shifts in neighborhood demographics and the loss of affordable housing for low- and middle-income residents. The findings emphasize the need for policy interventions to mitigate the negative effects of short-term rentals on the local housing market, balancing tourism-driven economic growth with the preservation of community stability and housing accessibility.

Spatio-temporal dynamics of platform labour: short-term rental cleaning labour intermediaries and student-migrant-workers

ABSTRACT Although short-term rental platforms (e.g. Airbnb) are often not considered labour platforms, their suppliers must contend with demands on labour structured by the platforms. Using Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis, this article examines the spatio-temporal dynamics of cleaning labour for STR platforms through the experiences of student-migrant-workers in Montreal between 2017 and 2020. I argue that yield-focused STR operators (i.e. owner-operators and managers) encounter spatio-temporal friction (or arrhythmia) in their efforts to outsource STR cleaning labour, but some labour intermediaries have responded with strategies to bring this conflict into harmony (eurhythmia) by incorporating the lives and labour of student-migrant-workers. At once limited in their employment options and not exclusively dependent on this work, student-migrant-workers illustrate characteristics that these intermediaries require of the workers they assemble and the flexible labour force upon which STR platforms depend. Rather than replacing labour intermediaries, online platforms have created new spatio-temporal dynamics for labour and new opportunities for those who profit from assembling the labour forces that address them.

The effects of short-term rental regulation: Insights from Chicago

We provide an in-depth study of short-term rental (STR) regulation in Chicago. While many municipalities choose between outright bans or laissez-faire strategies concerning STR activities, Chicago pioneered a middle-ground ordinance, enabling the market to exist with limitations and registrations, and imposing a new tax. We show that compared to three control cities, the number of active Airbnb listings in Chicago declined 16.4% in the two years after the ordinance, but this effect is only significant after the city began receiving detailed data feeds from STR platforms. We further demonstrate (i) localized reductions in burglaries near buildings that prohibit STR listings as part of a new capability of the ordinance, (ii) Airbnb revenues declined more in zip codes with above-median hotel revenues, and (iii) Chicago's middle ground approach generated different and nuanced effects on different STR stakeholders, including the city itself in terms of its STR tax revenues.

Regulating Short-Term Rental Platforms: Where, How and in the Interest of Whom?

Cet article analyse l’impact des plateformes de location à court terme sur le marché immobilier et l’industrie du tourisme. Nous élaborons un modèle théorique afin d’explorer les effets de l’entrée de ces plateformes sur différents segments du marché immobilier et de l’industrie du tourisme, en fonction de l’attrait d’une destination et de la composition socio-économique de sa population. Nous démontrons que dans des destinations très attractives, des restrictions quantitatives sur les locations à court terme sont efficaces pour protéger les étudiants et les locataires à faibles revenus contre une exclusion du marché locatif. Cependant, dans des destinations caractérisées par une forte saisonnalité, la taxation pourrait constituer une solution plus adéquate pour atténuer les effets négatifs de la plateforme. En revanche, dans des destinations moins attractives, les restrictions quantitatives sont moins efficaces, et la taxation peut offrir une meilleure solution pour protéger les hôteliers et les familles de la classe moyenne. Nos résultats fournissent aux décideurs des lignes directrices efficaces pour réglementer les plateformes de location à court terme et leurs impacts sur différents segments du marché immobilier et de l’industrie du tourisme. JEL Codes: L83, L85, L86, R31, Z38

How perceived justice leads to stickiness to short-term rental platforms: Unveiling the effect of relationship commitment and trust

The rise of the sharing economy has transformed traditional housing rental practices, with short-term rental (STR) emerging as a successful model in the accommodation sector. However, information asymmetry and trust issues pose significant challenges within STR platforms, emphasizing the importance of improving user stickiness. This study utilizes a two-stage, multi-method approach to validate the dimensions of perceived justice among guests in STR settings and their impact on user stickiness. The results demonstrate that guests’ perceptions of justice are primarily influenced by dimensions such as distributive, interpersonal, informational, and procedural justice, which in turn positively affect platform stickiness through the mediation of trust and relationship commitment. These findings offer valuable insights for addressing justice concerns and enhancing user stickiness in the STR landscape.

Ecologies of friction in digital platform investment

ABSTRACT Digital platforms are underpinned by the ideal of a frictionless market, obscuring the simultaneous practices of market monopolisation and the restriction of consumer choice and movement. This concurrent removal and erection of barriers to participation triggers ecosystemic responses such as individual adaptations and establishing alternative organisations to counter the progression of these ‘walled gardens’. In this article, we contribute to theorising ecologies of friction in the platform economy, drawing on Tsing’s friction in the creation of global connections, Orbach’s friction paradox, and Bateson’s ecological epistemology. Analysing a European short-term rental platform cooperative’s difficult launch, we ask: How do frictions emerge on alternative platforms in the digital economy, and what effect do they have on prefiguring the platform business? Frictions become apparent in platform investment, a complex resource-allocating relationship binding together multiple stakeholders, laden with expectations about the future. We highlight the interconnected frictions of individual investment into platform work, collective investment into platform participation, and resource investment into the business model. These are bound with platform organising, community development, and managing scale as the cooperative tries to prefigure a future platform economy in establishing its current practice. We contribute by extending the concept of ecologies of friction in connecting individual and collective investment with ideas around platform growth. We illustrate how all platform economy actors – participants and platforms alike – are entangled in frictions. We suggest that alternative platforms’ struggles are largely caused by the impossibility of escaping the broader ecosystemic dynamics established by dominant platform imaginaries.

The perceived impacts of short-term rental platforms: Comparing the United States and United Kingdom

Short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb have enjoyed considerable success in recent years. However, critics accuse the platforms of having negative impacts, leading to gentrification, disruption, and increased rent and house prices. While research has investigated actual impacts of short-term rental platforms, we lack systematic, generalizable, and comparative evidence on the perceived impacts of such platforms, especially from a social exchange perspective and on a country level. To address these shortcomings, we conducted a representative survey in the US and UK with a holistic set of perceived impacts. Using social exchange theory (SET) and applying a range of multi-variate statistical analyses, such as exploratory factor analysis, cluster analysis and discriminant analysis, we systematically compare these two contexts. The findings indicate that US residents assess short-term rental platforms more positively than UK residents, especially for recreational, amenities-oriented and economic impacts. Among respondents who have used short-term rental platforms as guests, the perceptions are more alike between the two countries, suggesting a homogenization effect. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the results.

Airbnb and rental markets: Evidence from Berlin

We exploit the differential responses of Airbnb hosts to two distinct policy interventions in Berlin to shed light on the optimal design of policies targeting short-term rental platforms to mitigate rental market inflation. The first intervention, which affected commercial listings, significantly impacted long-term rental markets, unlike the second intervention, which mainly affected non-commercial listings. Leveraging these policy variations, we estimate the marginal impact of Airbnb on rental supply and rents. Each additional commercial Airbnb listing displaces 0.23 to 0.37 rental units and increases rent per square meter by 1.3 to 2.4 percent. This underscores the importance of targeting commercial listings when regulating short-term rental markets.

Neither housing nor hotel

One of the many impacts of the Covid pandemic on Canadian cities was the complete collapse of short-term rental (STR) markets, as long-distance travel nearly vanished for more than a year. Many dedicated STRs shifted back to the long-term rental market, but others remained on STR platforms such as Airbnb but with minimum stays of one month or more—a land use we describe as “medium-term rentals” (MTRs). This paper provides a planning analysis of online-platform-mediated MTRs in Canadian cities and their housing-market, land-use, and regulatory implications. First, we identify and explore the regulatory grey zone inhabited by MTRs, which appear to be neither standard residential tenancies nor short-term tourist accommodations. Second, the paper provides a brief empirical overview of the emergence of MTRs during and after the Covid pandemic in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. Third, the paper uses a policy case study of situations in which Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board has been asked to adjudicate non-standard tenancies to establish whether there is a planning basis for distinguishing medium-term rentals from other tenancy types. The paper concludes by identifying a key planning principle which could allow Canadian municipalities to pull MTRs out of the regulatory grey zone: regulating type of stay instead of length of stay.

Regulating short-term rental platforms: the effects of local regulatory responses on Airbnb’s operations in Europe

Abstract Many digital platforms offer services that affect real-world socio-economic processes. One example is the impact of short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb or Wimdu on cities and neighborhoods. Because these platforms often operate in a regulatory void characterized by absent, unclear, or poorly enforced laws and regulations, local governments in affected cities have begun experimenting with a variety of instruments to regulate the operations of short-term rental platforms. In this paper, we report how such locally implemented regulatory responses have affected Airbnb’s operations across 13 European cities over the period from 2015 to 2019. Using a difference-in-difference specification with synthetic controls, we assess the impact of different regulatory responses by disaggregating them into motivations, actions, targets, and outcomes. We find that the effectiveness of regulatory responses differs by type of regulation (restricting or clarifying), type of host (professional or private), as well as the enforcement (with or without the cooperation of the platform operator). Through this work, we add to the ongoing debate on the regulation of digital platforms by presenting both empirical evidence as well as an analytical framework.

Short-term rental platforms’ contrasting effects on neighborhoods: the case of urban destinations on the French Riviera

This paper aims to analyze the conditions under which the growth of short-term rental platforms affects standard rents, focusing on key destinations on the French Riviera. Following a literature review, we develop a simplified model capturing the characteristics of French Riviera destinations and predict a positive effect on rents in the short run when there is a high pressure from short-term rentals. We validate these predictions using data from AirDNA pertaining to short-term rentals offered on the Airbnb platform, combined with data on long-term rentals in the cities of Nice and Cannes.JEL classification: L83, R31, Z31, L85, L86.

Short-term rentals’ supply-side structure and the struggle for rent appropriation: Insights from Andalusia, Spain

Platform capitalism is a growing reality with a widening social and economic impact. The rapid expansion of Short-Term Rental (STR) platforms has led to new challenges for policy regulation. The main objective of this paper is to shed some light on current conflicts surrounding the regulation of STR. The body of literature on this topic mainly focuses on the increasing substitution of sharing economy by commercial hosts. By contrast, we explain that the ideological notion of host hinders the understanding of the supply-side structure. A critical approach (as critique of ideology and ideological categories) should entail a class perspective based on rent theory and engage with critical works on platform capitalism. In this article, we propose an innovative analytical approach to STR supply-side supported by rent theory, which focuses on the relationship of agents with land and technology ownership and specialised management services, as these are forms of rent appropriation. From this point of view, these supply-side agents are not hosts, but class factions with common and competing economic interests in rent appropriation. Therefore, they can employ a variety of strategies to influence the political regulation of STRs. Based on in-depth interviews with landlords, individual managers, and corporate agencies in Andalusia (Southern Spain), we show the conflicting internal structure behind the ideological notion of host and even professionalisation.

Exploring the Relationship between Host Self-Description and Consumer Purchase Behavior Using a Self-Presentation Strategy

Information on short-term rental platforms plays an important role in consumer purchase behavior. However, information asymmetry between host and guest has been identified as a problem in sharing economy contexts. In this paper, to fill this gap, the authors develop six hypotheses about the focal impacts of self-presentation strategy and the moderating effects of third-party certification. Based on data from Airbnb, the authors first examine how the tactics of self-presentation strategy influence consumer purchase behavior. The results show that different self-presentation tactics affect consumer purchase behavior differently. The authors also found that the third-party certification level weakens the influence of self-presentation strategy interactions on consumer purchase behavior.

"Airbnb in the City": assessing short-term rental regulation in Bordeaux.

Short-term rental platforms, led by Airbnb, have disrupted the tourism accommodation industry over the last decade. This disruption has encouraged policy-makers to intervene. However, little is known about how effective such interventions are. This paper empirically evaluates the impact Bordeaux's regulation has had on short-term rental (STR) activity through both a differences-in-differences and a triple-difference design. We find that regulation has had a reductive effect of over 322 rented days per month per district on average. This equates to 44% of mean reservation days and over 28 thousand less nights spent per month in STRs across the city. This effect is persistent in peripheral areas of the city, with an average effect of 35% of monthly reservation days. However, the city's attempts to limit activity stemming from targeted (commercial) listings yields mixed results as non-targeted (home-sharing) listings also seem to have modified their behavior. Additionally, analysis in the periphery paves the way for discussion about the effectiveness of one-size-fits-all STR policy design.

Sharing Homes and Beds: Baptist-Bootlegger Coalitions and the Politics of Authenticity in the Regulation of Los Angeles's Short-Term Rental Markets

Platform economy politics reflect a trend of corporations working with civic actors to achieve shared political goals, reconfiguring once adversarial relationships (e.g., management vs. labor, homeowners vs. tenants). Yet theories on urban politics and policymaking often do not account for such “Baptist-Bootlegger” coalitions (Smith and Yandle 2014; Yandle 1983). This article analyzes how the efforts of two competing Baptist-Bootlegger coalitions shaped the 2018 short-term rental (i.e., Airbnb, HomeAway) ordinance in Los Angeles, CA, USA. I argue that a subtly coordinated partnership of housing groups, neighborhood activists, and hotel market incumbents leveraged their individual authenticity and resources to successfully articulate a shared vision with policymakers. Conversely, an opposing coalition of short-term rental platforms and hosts more explicitly combined their efforts under an organizational framework that conflated economic and moral claims; this hybrid organizational identity was perceived as less authentic by policymaking audiences and precluded potentially more strategic forms of organizing.

To see and then to believe: how image affect tenant decision-making and satisfaction on short-term rental platform

Home sharing is a new industry that was born with the development of sharing economy. The online short-term rental platform is an important carrier for home sharing. On the short-term rental platform, house images are an essential way to display the overall situation of the house, and one of the main channels for tenants to obtain house information. This paper studies the relationship between house images' colors and contents and tenant booking decision-making and satisfaction. By utilizing image mining techniques on the data obtained from a popular short-term rental platform in China, this research reveals that the color richness of house images has a significant negative relationship with both tenant booking decision-making and tenant satisfaction. What's more, both household and leisure content displayed in house images has significant positive relationships with tenant booking decision-making. Our work supplements the research on the impact of house images on home sharing and provides meaningful guidance for both the short-term rental platforms and the landlords.

The Effect of Short-Term Rentals on Residential Investment

We provide new evidence that short-term rental platforms like Airbnb incentivize residential real estate investment.

Intelligent Hotel Resource Sharing System Based on Data Fusion

In order to further develop cross-platform hotel resource sharing, a cross-platform comparative study of user review text of intelligent hotel resource sharing system based on data fusion is proposed. X hotel reservation platform and Z short-term rental platform were selected as the experimental objects, and 86,635 user comment texts of relevant housing sources in a city were collected. Cross-platform comparative analysis of user text comments was conducted by combining the LDA model-themed social network and the theme sentiment analysis method. The experiment result shows the following: Based on the emotional score of each theme, the positive, negative, and neutral emotional intensity values of hotel platform reviews were 0.76, 0.06, and 0.18, respectively, and the emotional intensity values of shared accommodation platform were 0.82, 0.05, and 0.11, respectively. The research finds the similarities and differences between the two platforms in the social network and emotion of the topic and explains the substitutability and complementarity of the two platforms in products and services from the perspective of microuser comments. Conclusion. This study provides an important practical reference for platform managers to develop and improve accommodation products and services.