118k Brooklyn AirBnB stays in a year: ‘Legalize Sharing’ campaign

Private space renting service AirBNB.com has been on an aggressive public relations campaign to maintain access to the New York market. It’s directing users to an online petition to “Save AirBnB in New York: Legalize Sharing,” according to an email from AirBnB community manager Douglas Atkin.

AirBnB has been in murky legal waters for years, from how it’s users are reporting income to whether its evading licensing status and other ways an online platform doesn’t quite fit into existing law. Like ridesharing companies like Uber, AirBnB is very much fighting for its existence.

Some Brooklyn highlights from the company’s recent report — “Airbnb’s Support of NYC’s Prosperity Agenda Analysis of Impacts August 2012 – July 2013,” — released this month help convey why those in the County of Kings might likely care. The following infographics appear in the report, and are used by permission from the company.

First of all, the report shows that, among the boroughs, Brooklyn is offering competitive volumes of places to stay to other parts of New York, and the locations nicely complement the parts of the borough where we know the tech community is putting down roots.

It’s not just where rooms are available, though. People are actually using them, too. In fact, Brooklyn is a strong second to Manhattan as an AirBNB host.

This infographic shows the number of visitors to each borough during the period the report covers:

We also liked this case study that shows that AirBnB is accommodating guests in transitioning neighborhoods. For example, the company provided this infographic where it zooms in on impacts in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood:

Further, the report goes into ways it supports the creative and technological economy. According the report, 29 percent of its hosts are freelancers (versus 7% of citywide residents), and 11,630 people used the service to come here to interview for a job or as temporary housing while they suffered through searching for a New York apartment.