Mayors of Detroit, New Orleans, Tallahassee, Fla., Jersey City, N.J. and the former mayor of Houston talk about what home sharing has meant to their cities and residents. Airbnb is using the video to promote short-term rentals opportunities to cities.
Airbnb unveiled the video before the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) winter meeting in Washington, D.C., which was attended by more than 300 U.S. mayors. Airbnb was one of the event sponsors.
Home sharing is not for every city, but it’s worked for Detroit, said Mayor Mike Duggan.
It keeps our neighborhoods intact, it keeps our homeownership intact. It’s been a very positive thing for the city,” he said in the video.
Last year, Airbnb’s Chris Lehane told USCM, “Read my lips, we want to pay taxes,” and then seemingly set out to prove it.
Along with the video, Airbnb also released its U.S. Tax Report. Through the company’s application for booking short-term rentals, it has been able to generate $175 million in hotel, tourist and occupancy taxes to more than 220 cities and communities around the world since 2014.
The report also stated that if the 50 largest U.S. cities earned Airbnb taxes, local governments would increase income by a total of of $2.5 billion over the next 10 years.
