How Airbnb supports the Atlanta community

This spring, the City of Atlanta established a regulatory framework for short-term rentals, recognizing the economic benefits Airbnb provides to local families and neighborhoods across the city. Under the new rules, slated to go into effect in March 2022, both homeowners and long-term tenants can obtain a license for home sharing and full-time short-term rentals. 

Now, the City is considering Ordinance Z-21-85. This ordinance clarifies that short-term rentals are permitted in all residential zones, requires responsible hosting and will ensure residents across Atlanta are able to host and access this meaningful income.

Economic Impact

Airbnb is a tool for economic empowerment, providing a path to entrepreneurship for Atlanta residents and helping local families pay their bills by sharing their homes. New Hosts with only one listing in Atlanta collectively earned $8.5 million in the first half of the year.  

Most Hosts on Airbnb are everyday people sharing the homes in which they live, and the typical Host earns $9,600 each year. Changes in personal finances during the pandemic have inspired people to start sharing their extra space with visitors. For example, one third of Hosts on Airbnb surveyed globally said either they or someone in their household experienced a pay cut or lost work hours in 2020 because of the pandemic; 14 percent said they lost their jobs or were laid off themselves, or lived with someone who did.¹ 

Airbnb guest spending supports local businesses. Recent Oxford Economics research found that Airbnb guest spending in Atlanta supported 3,400 jobs in 2019, including 1,200 in the restaurant industry.  

Responsible Hosting

Airbnb is committed to promoting responsible hosting. That’s why we worked with the City on the responsible hosting and enforcement measures in Atlanta’s new STR ordinance, which will give the city tools to address any bad actors.

Airbnb has also self-implemented a number of measures to help prevent and deter unauthorized parties and disruptive gatherings. These include:

• Introducing a formal ban on party houses in late 2019 and instituted a global ban on parties and events in August 2020.
• Instituting blocks on certain types of reservations for holiday weekends, including blocking 1-night reservations of entire home listings for the upcoming Halloween weekend. This follows a similar, successful initiative for Halloween weekend 2020, during which over 2,100 people were deterred by our various anti-party defenses from booking entire home listings in Atlanta. 
• Utilizing our robust party prevention systems throughout the year.
• Cracking down on party houses by suspending or removing dozens of listings in Atlanta that had received complaints or otherwise violated our policies on parties and events. 
• Establishing 24/7 neighborhood support line, a way for community members to connect directly with Airbnb.

We are committed to being a long-term partner to the City of Atlanta and look forward to working with local leaders as they implement the new law, and to promote entrepreneurship and tourism recovery. We urge the Zoning Review Board and City Council to pass Ordinance Z-21-85 and allow all Atlantans the opportunity to also benefit from the return of travel.