Post by High Priestess on Mar 17, 2018 15:33:58 GMT
COmic Con in San Diego is turning out to be an exploration of price gouging:
www.forbes.com/sites/michaelgoldstein/2018/03/16/comiccon-unlikely-battleground-in-hotel-industry-vs-airbnb-war-over-price-gouging/#17d66ab77773
A group called Airbnbwatch accused Airbnb and its hosts of price-gouging first at Mardi Gras in New Orleans and later at, yes, the upcoming ComicCon in San Diego.
Their “ANALYSIS REPORT Airbnb Price Gouging for 2018 Comic-Con, San Diego, California” compared the upcoming Comic-Con period (July 19-23, 2018) room rate with July 24. Some of the listings included one hosted by Paul, listed at $1,689 a night for the Comic-Con period but $509 the following day, a 231% rate increase, one listed as Hosted By San Diego at $1,999 a night during the show, $299 the next day, a 568% increase, and one Hosted By Caleb, $2,499 per night during Comic-Con, $316 thereafter, a 690% increase. The report claimed that each is a “commercial operator with multiple other listings.”
Presented with these statistics, an Airbnb representative described Airbnbwatch (an offshoot of the progressive group American Family Voices) as “a hotel industry front group.” While acknowledging the participation of the AHLA, Lauren Windsor, the Executive Director of American Family Voices, said, “We are allied with the hotel industry, hotel unions, and other advocacy groups in this coalition primarily for the sake of affordable housing, which is a crisis in many cities across the country."
Airbnb has its own report of the prices involved and included a chart comparing hotel and Airbnb prices during seven major events including Comic-Con in San Diego 2016. According to Airbnb, during the Comic-Con period (7/20–7/24) the average hotel room price was $261, but the average Airbnb room price was $145, for an average savings per room of $116. With 20,600 total room nights booked on Airbnb, the home sharer claimed an average total savings of $2,389,600 throughout the city. And an Airbnb spokesman claimed, “Roughly 80% of our hosts in San Diego share their primary residence.”
Airbnb likes to claim they are a safety valve that keeps a lid on “price gouging” during peak periods, like political conventions or Comic-Con. An Airbnb spokesperson told Forbes, “Airbnb hosts set the price of their own listing, but our model is different from hotels--when demand for Airbnb increases, supply does too. That means we don’t typically see big price spikes. Data shows that booked Airbnb listings around major events are substantially cheaper than hotels.”
www.forbes.com/sites/michaelgoldstein/2018/03/16/comiccon-unlikely-battleground-in-hotel-industry-vs-airbnb-war-over-price-gouging/#17d66ab77773
A group called Airbnbwatch accused Airbnb and its hosts of price-gouging first at Mardi Gras in New Orleans and later at, yes, the upcoming ComicCon in San Diego.
Their “ANALYSIS REPORT Airbnb Price Gouging for 2018 Comic-Con, San Diego, California” compared the upcoming Comic-Con period (July 19-23, 2018) room rate with July 24. Some of the listings included one hosted by Paul, listed at $1,689 a night for the Comic-Con period but $509 the following day, a 231% rate increase, one listed as Hosted By San Diego at $1,999 a night during the show, $299 the next day, a 568% increase, and one Hosted By Caleb, $2,499 per night during Comic-Con, $316 thereafter, a 690% increase. The report claimed that each is a “commercial operator with multiple other listings.”
Presented with these statistics, an Airbnb representative described Airbnbwatch (an offshoot of the progressive group American Family Voices) as “a hotel industry front group.” While acknowledging the participation of the AHLA, Lauren Windsor, the Executive Director of American Family Voices, said, “We are allied with the hotel industry, hotel unions, and other advocacy groups in this coalition primarily for the sake of affordable housing, which is a crisis in many cities across the country."
Airbnb has its own report of the prices involved and included a chart comparing hotel and Airbnb prices during seven major events including Comic-Con in San Diego 2016. According to Airbnb, during the Comic-Con period (7/20–7/24) the average hotel room price was $261, but the average Airbnb room price was $145, for an average savings per room of $116. With 20,600 total room nights booked on Airbnb, the home sharer claimed an average total savings of $2,389,600 throughout the city. And an Airbnb spokesman claimed, “Roughly 80% of our hosts in San Diego share their primary residence.”
Airbnb likes to claim they are a safety valve that keeps a lid on “price gouging” during peak periods, like political conventions or Comic-Con. An Airbnb spokesperson told Forbes, “Airbnb hosts set the price of their own listing, but our model is different from hotels--when demand for Airbnb increases, supply does too. That means we don’t typically see big price spikes. Data shows that booked Airbnb listings around major events are substantially cheaper than hotels.”