30 April 2015 | travelweekly.co.uk business Essential news, comment and analysis TOP STORY


AIRBNB ACCEPTS PROFESSIONAL


LANDLORDS


Christopher Cederskog: ‘We don’t distinguish on a


day-to-day basis between those who are professionals and those who are not”


SITE IS HAPPY TO HOST LANDLORDS WITH


MULTIPLE PROPERTIES. IAN TAYLOR REPORTS FROM THE WORLD TOURISMFORUM


Airbnb is “not afraid” of professional holiday-let landlords using its site and has admitted “some of its best hosts” offer multiple properties. Christopher Cederskog, Airbnb


regional manager for Europe, told the World Tourism Forum in Lucerne last week: “We don’t distinguish on a day-to-day basis between those who are professionals and those who are not.” He insisted: “The vast majority of our hosts are not professional


70 • travelweekly.co.uk — 30 April 2015


landlords – 90% of our hosts rent out [rooms] for less than 100 days a year. If they were professionals, they would not make money doing that.”


But Cederskog conceded: “Some of our best hosts have five to six properties. “We are not afraid of


professionals using the platform. We look at the level of service. The more important thing is whether the service is good [and] we think it is possible to offer good service


only with about three properties [on Airbnb].” Cederskog rejected


the suggestion that the accommodation-sharing site had become “more transactional” after one Airbnb user described being handed the keys to an apartment on arrival in a city and being told: “Here are the keys, here are the rules, pay an extra fee for cleaning.”


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