Investing in our partnerships with local communities

For years, Airbnb has partnered with hundreds of cities, states, provinces, and countries worldwide to create a positive impact. In our work together, we’ve learned that governments want to better understand the footprint that Airbnb has on their local communities, and tourism organizations want a partner to help them rebuild their economies.

We’re excited to announce that we’ve listened to this feedback and developed a new resource to support our local communities.

City Portal is a first-of-its-kind solution to help cities understand activity on Airbnb. Here’s what the Portal offers:

• Relevant insights: Streamlined information about economic activity and travel trends can help cities understand Airbnb’s footprint within their communities
• Tools to help serve local communities: Simple, easy-to-use tools help governments develop and manage fair short-term rental policies, where required
• Resources and support: Cities have access to one-to-one support from Airbnb and centralized resources—like Neighborhood Support and the enhanced cleaning protocol

City Portal will transform how Airbnb works with communities and can help hosts and guests have more peace of mind when using Airbnb. Through the Portal, we also want to help communities learn more about what hosts do—especially the benefits they deliver to their guests and the local economy.

By partnering with cities, we can help governments better understand—and build more trust with—Airbnb, which benefits hosts. We also plan to highlight hosts in future versions of City Portal to showcase the value that hosting can bring to communities.

Because these efforts only matter if they’re supported by a strong tourism industry, City Portal will also provide insights and resources to help local tourism organizations rebuild the tourism economy in a sustainable way and drive more travel to the area. A healthy tourism industry means more opportunities for Airbnb hosts, and more options for traveling guests.

We’re currently piloting City Portal with government partners in a few North American cities, as well as tourism organizations around the world. We’re planning to add more partners to City Portal over the coming months—starting with existing partnerships with governments and tourism organizations. Over time, we hope to help more local communities learn how their economies can benefit from home sharing.

City Portal is an important next step in strengthening our relationships with communities, with the goal of ultimately protecting the future of home sharing for hosts and guests on Airbnb. We’re excited about where this work will lead—and look forward to helping local communities around the world build a healthy tourism industry through responsible home sharing.

Who can use this tool?
Only government officials and marketers at tourism organizations who’ve been approved by Airbnb will have access to City Portal.

What governments and tourism organizations are a part of the pilot?
City Portal is launching with more than 15 pilot cities and tourism organization partners in its first phase. Pilot cities and counties include: Buffalo, New York; unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida; New Orleans, Louisiana; Palm Springs, Raleigh, Sacramento, and San Francisco, California; Seattle, Washington; and Calgary and Vancouver, Canada.

Pilot-phase tourism partners include: Visit Tampa Bay, Visit Denmark, the City of Krakow, São Paulo State Secretary of Tourism, Visit Scotland, Visit Tuscany, and Wesgro (Western Cape of South Africa).

What information about hosts and guests will the Portal provide?
Most cities will have access to aggregated global metrics, such as the number of nights booked, global host earnings, and data related to Airbnb’s positive economic impact and global tax contribution.

Some cities will also have access to these aggregated metrics on a local level, including local data related to Airbnb bookings, such as average group size and average nightly price. We’ll also be sharing information related to travel trends with tourism organizations, such as top cities of origin for bookings in their destination.

How will the information be used?
Governments can use this information to understand Airbnb’s footprint in their community. Tourism organizations can use this information to help understand travel trends and demographics, allowing them to develop strategies to grow tourism to their destinations.

Will any personally identifiable information about hosts or guests be shared?
The Airbnb platform and what information it captures about hosts and guests won’t be affected by the launch of City Portal. No new personally identifiable information about hosts or guests will be provided to governments. We do have data sharing obligations with certain jurisdictions, and we’ll continue to comply with them.

Information contained in this article may have changed since publication.