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The Airbnb Threat: Smaller Than It Seems

NEWPORT BEACH, CA—“The odds seem to favor a world in which hotels and home sharing can peacefully co-exist,” says Green Street Advisors, which also sees opportunities for the multifamily sector.

By Paul Bubny | Updated on October 17, 2016

Airbnb app on a smartphone

Airbnb’s Live There app, introduced this past spring. The Internet has been instrumental in growing home-sharing platforms. (Photo: Airbnb)

NEWPORT BEACH, CA—Its latest round of financing values Airbnb at about $30 billion, or roughly on par with Marriott International and Hilton Worldwide. Green Street Advisors aptly uses the term “800-lb. gorilla” to describe the San Francisco-based company’s place in the home-sharing sector. These two facts taken together would appear to support the argument that Airbnb represents a clear and present danger to the hotel industry, and to a lesser extent a threat to multifamily owners.

Or maybe the lodging CEOs who have downplayed the risk have it right after all. In a report titled “Airbnb—There’s Room Enough for Everyone,” Green Street analysts say that hoteliers’ concerns about the home-sharing giant’s competitive profile may be “overdone.” For a variety of reasons, the analysts write, “the odds seem to favor a world in which hotels and home sharing can peacefully co-exist.”

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