Houston-area Airbnb hosts raked in $72 million last year
Airbnb hosts in the Greater Houston area collected a combined $72 million last year while welcoming some 512,000 guests, the company said.
Harris County saw the most guests, 285,000, with hosts earning $44 million. That was followed by Galveston County with 163,000 and hosts earning $19.6 million. Montgomery County was third with 22,000 guests and $3 million.
The typical Houstonarea host earns about $5,100 a year.
“In 2019, we hope our platform can help elevate the Houston region’s status as a global hub for family friendly tourism,” Laura Spanjian, the Houston-based Texas public policy director for Airbnb, said in a news release.
There are now more than 30,000 Texans who share their homes as Airbnb hosts.
A tax agreement with the Texas Comptroller’s Office announced in 2017 allows Airbnb to collect and remit the Texas state occupancy tax on behalf of its hosts.
Earlier this year, Airbnb announced that it delivered $15.3 million in tax revenue to the state in the first year of that agreement. That figure was nearly double the initial projection.
Open garage, deliver order from Amazon
You’ve probably seen countless videos of package thieves getting away with people’s Christmas gifts and other deliveries.
Houston Amazon Prime members may soon have a solution.
Amazon is teaming up with the maker of Chamberlain and LiftMaster garage door openers to offer ingarage deliveries to customers in Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio starting in the second quarter.
The service, called Key by Amazon, will allow people with certain garage door openers to select “in-garage delivery” at checkout.
Chamberlain and LiftMaster both offer garage doors that can be controlled by an app called myQ.
Members of Amazon Prime who also have myQ will be able to link the two in Amazon.com’s Key app (which already offers inside-your-door and inside-your-car-trunk delivery in Houston).
According to the Chamberlain group, Amazon will verify that the correct driver is at the right address before allowing them to open the garage door and complete the delivery.
Family Dollar soon will open Sharpstown store
Family Dollar Stores will open its Sharpstown location on Thursday.
The discount store, 5710 Fondren Road, will sell household products, food, cosmetics, seasonal merchandise and apparel.
The North Carolinabased retailer operates more than 8,000 stores in rural and urban areas across 46 states.
Family Dollar is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chesapeake, Va.-based Dollar Tree, which bought the chain for $8.8 billion in 2015.
Starboard Value, an activist hedge fund, earlier this week acquired a 1.7 percent stake in Dollar Tree and is pushing the company to sell Family Dollar, which has struggled to compete with other discount retailers, such as Dollar General and Five Below.
Houston-based practice buys another local firm
BoyarMiller has acquired Houston-based Young, Graves & Burt, a probate and estate litigation firm based in Houston.
Jill Young and Christopher Burt join the business law and litigation firm in the litigation group. Young serves as of counsel, while Burt is a senior associate.
The acquisition adds litigation for probate, wills, estate, trust and guardianship, as well as estate administration and planning, to BoyarMiller’s offerings.
“There could not be a better cultural fit with YGB’s practice and lawyers,” BoyarMiller chairman Chris Hanslik said in an announcement. “They bring deep experience in a practice area that is addressing the greatest transfer of wealth between generations, and private or family-owned businesses. As a team, we will create a comprehensive service offering unique to litigation practices.”
Young said the new practice area complements the BoyarMiller’s corporate and real estate practices.
“Now with BoyarMiller, we have a distinctive platform to service clients not only for the challenges they face today, but to help them build for the future,” Young said.
Founded in 1990, Houston-based BoyarMiller represents multinational companies, middle-market businesses and entrepreneurs.