Kiwis jump on Airbnb wagon

Queenstown wants to tighten up rules on short-term rentals

Airbnb faces a possible clampdown in the tourism hotspot of Queenstown but has released research saying that the majority of Kiwis are keen on the home sharing platform.

Late last year the company came under the eye of Queenstown Lakes District Council after the local government authority announced it wanted to tighten up rules on shortterm rentals advertised on platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com.

Planned restrictions — currently out for consultation — included bringing letting periods down to a maximum of 28 days from 90 days in certain tourist areas in response to the region’s accommodation crisis.

But according to research it commissioned, Kiwis are increasingly jumping on Airbnb’s bandwagon.

According to a study of 1015 New Zealanders by YouGov Research, 66 per cent of Kiwis were found to support allowing people to home share, 54 per cent likely to use Airbnb when travelling overseas and 31 per cent were likely to use Airbnb to let out their home.

Airbnb head of public policy for Australia New Zealand, Brent Thomas, said more Kiwis than ever were recognising the benefits of home sharing.

“People recognise home sharing is strengthening their local community and growing the economy,” Thomas said.

Research shows 78 per cent of Kiwis believe the government should encourage home sharing within the tourism industry, and 63 per cent said they were concerned about a cap on the number of nights they could rent their home out for.

Close to half of all Kiwis surveyed said they would be concerned if they needed a licence to home share, which is the case in Belgium, among other countries.

In 2014, Airbnb faced opposition from Barcelona, Reykjavik, Moscow, Lisbon and San Francisco. Despite the company being headquartered in San Francisco, there are strict rules for hosts who have to be registered with local authorities.

A San Francisco-based Airbnb host can be fined US$1000 ($1300) per day for advertising a property without being registered.

Local research shows Kiwi millennials were found to be the biggest supporters of home sharing, closely followed by those over 65.

Auckland Airbnb host Mattie Wall, who has been using the platform for 10 months, said the opportunities to earn secondary income were endless.

Wall has a house with a spare bedroom which she lets for between $75 and $100 per night, depending on the season. Her property had been on Airbnb since March and in that time she has earned more than $4000 — for hosting 31 guests. In New Zealand there are 26,800 Airbnb hosts. Total combined income for Kiwi hosts is $185 million and an average yearly earning of a host sits at $4200.

Wall said some Airbnb hosts were renting out entire houses when possible.

“I have a friend who’s been doing Airbnb for three years and it has enabled her to supplement her income because she’s a contractor. She’s been able to do renovations on the house, add an annexe ...

Wall said she also knew of people buying properties just to let them out on Airbnb.

“At the moment, the only thing I could grasp on to my business is ‘I’ve got a very lovely garden and I’m a celebrant, so if anyone wanted to come to New Zealand to be married for a little extra fee I could marry them in my garden’.”

People recognise home sharing is strengthening their local community and growing the economy. Brent Thomas, Airbnb head of public policy for Australia New Zealand