Airbnb: There’s No Place Like (Someone Else’s) Home

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Airbnb gives Lexington homeowners and visitors alike a slice of the sharing economy

On the last weekend of October, the only thing harder to secure than tickets to the Breeders’ Cup horse racing championships or UK-Tennessee football game will be a place to stay.

About 40,000 visitors are expected for the premier horse racing event being hosted at Keeneland Race Course on Oct. 30 and 31. Thousands more will be in town to watch the University of Kentucky Wildcats take on the Tennessee Volunteers at Commonwealth Stadium on Oct. 31.

Already, most of the 7,500 local hotel rooms have been claimed for the busy fall weekend.

That has other visitors turning to Airbnb, the online peer-to-peer lodging service of the bourgeoning “sharing economy.” More than 50 Lexington residents currently have spaces listed on the site, offering visitors an alternative to hotel rooms and the chance to have a uniquely authentic Lexington experience.

“The sharing economy is here to stay,” said Mary Quinn Ramer, president of VisitLex, Lexington’s visitors and convention bureau. And, she noted, it’s not limited to housing. Other services that follow a similar model include ride-share programs such as Uber, Lyft and Sidecar; dog-sitting services DogVacay and Rover; and car-loaning companies RelayRides and Getaround.

“It’s probably going to trickle into things we can’t even imagine at the moment,” she said.

Airbnb was born in San Francisco in 2007, when Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia decided to open their own temporary bed and breakfast. Due to a conference in town that left all the hotels fully booked, Chesky and Gebbia allowed three guests to sleep on air mattresses in their apartment for $80 per night.

In August 2008, they launched the company, which connects people looking to share their home with people looking for a place to stay. Airbnb said it has served more than 25 million guests in more than 190 countries. The company is estimated to be worth more than $10 billion.

Fran Taylor, a Kentucky native, owned nine rental properties in Lexington before she decided to turn one of her smaller ones into an Airbnb rental after her last long-term tenant moved out. Taylor kept the apartment furnished and listed it on Airbnb; eight hours later, she had her first reservation. Her second reservation came two days after that, and the unit has stayed consistently booked ever since.

“It was just instantaneous, because the demand is really there,” Taylor said. “People want an alternative kind of place to stay when they’re visiting.”

Many hosts rent out their places while they are away traveling for work. The hosts benefit financially, and renters appreciate the benefits of staying in an apartment or house rather than a hotel or hostel.

“I’ve used it before in Chicago with a lot of luck,” said Lexington native Jordan Stewart, who also rents out his own space on Airbnb here in town. “It’s kind of nice having a little more privacy than hotels can offer.”

Stewart says location is another Airbnb benefit. Hosts can often offer spaces closer to preferred settings than hotels.

Both Taylor and Stewart use their Airbnb rentals as an extra source of income. A musician in the nationally touring band Emarosa, Stewart said his listing is booked about 20 days a month at a rate of $95 per night, while Taylor said her place is rarely empty.

Having previously charged $600 to $700 per month when it was a regular apartment, her $115 daily fee gives her the opportunity to make far more than that. She and her husband, Tom Cheek, plan to open a second Airbnb rental location in the same building.

Both Stewart and Taylor said they haven’t had a single bad experience with a guest, nor backlash from a neighbor.

“[Tom and I] have had guests from India, from England, from Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin, just from all over the place, and we’ve really enjoyed the people we’ve met through it,” said Taylor. “They’ve been delightful. We’ve brought them to parties with us, we’ve gone to dinner with them and have remained really friendly with a few of them.”

It is the host’s job to clean the space before each guest arrives – what Stewart called “flipping it.”

“It’s always been good experiences,” Stewart said. “I’ve never really had anything broken, nothing stolen, nothing like that. And a lot of times the people are great and they help out, and it’s not even messy.”

While offering temporary overnight house rentals for big events such as the Kentucky Derby or Breeder’s Cup is certainly not a new concept, the recent uptick toward making it a year-round phenomenon has left many local government and tourism organizations scrambling to position themselves on the matter.

Earlier this year in Louisville, city officials sent letters to at least 20 local Airbnb hosts, alleging that they were operating “illegal hotels” and threatening fines of up to $500 if they did not stop. While the action shook up several hosts, it was also met with backlash from the city’s metro council, which unanimously signed off on a resolution asking city officials to stop issuing citations until firm regulations are put into place.

Citing concerns that range from occupancy taxes to property values, a growing number of cities are starting to adopt official policies specifically outlining how Airbnb and other similar short-term rental services are allowed to function.

According to LFUCG director of communications Susan Straub, Lexington hasn’t adopted an official policy regarding temporary home rentals, but anyone doing business in the city is required to obtain an occupational license, as well as pay a 6 percent “transient room tax” on rentals that are less than 30 days.

Local hosts have generally been compliant once they understand the issue, Straub said. A notice was sent in late March requesting that hosts activate a business account with the city, or if they already have an account, that they provide the city with their information so that their account can be located. Out of the more than 50 hosts currently listed on the site, only seven have registered business accounts with the city.

It’s an issue that will likely continue to evolve as the service grows increasingly popular, and according to Ramer, it’s something that professionals in the travel and tourism industries are “certainly talking about all the time.”

“The tourism landscape is constantly changing, and the emergence of AirBnB is a perfect example of this evolution,” added Christa Morilla, president of the Bluegrass Hospitality Association. While the organization, which represents more than 60 local organizations in the hospitality industry, acknowledges that lodging alternatives such as Airbnb have the potential to enhance the fabric of Bluegrass hospitality, their primary concern right now is that hosts are compliant with local business laws.

“Abiding by these standards better ensures our visitors a pleasant stay and puts other businesses such as hotels, motels and B&Bs on an equal and level playing field,” she said.

According to Ramer, those standards don’t just mean hotel taxes, but all the other aspects that go with running a local business as well – from ADA compliance to proper fire and evacuation procedures to filing a business license.

“We just want to make sure that we’re taking good care of our visitors while they’re in town,” she said. “There’s a lot to come still from this conversation.” cc

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