Starwood joins Airbnb’s short-term rental program

Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group is the latest to jump on board Airbnb’s apartment rental listing service.

Starwood is one of a handful of landlords to join the program, Bloomberg reported. Other landlords recruited to the service by Airbnb include GoldOller Real Estate Investments, Milhaus and Space Craft.

Airbnb launched the listing service in November, attempting to bring short-term rentals out of the shadows and inspire a new crop of hosts. Equity Residential and Greystar were among the dozen landlords to take part in the launch, which spanned more than 175 properties.

Leading into the launch, apartments’ share of Airbnb listings were declining, in part because of regulation being ramped up by New York and other cities. From October 2019 to October 2022, overall listings on Airbnb increased 23 percent, but the share of listings in apartment buildings declined 5 percent.

Cities have been trying to crack down on illegal short-term rentals of apartments to free up those units for tenants, who have seen rents increase as the housing supply tightens.

One element of Airbnb’s new program is that only units permitted for short-term sublets are shown. The landlord partners collect a share of the total booking revenue from the service — often 20 percent — and have access to a dashboard that displays which units have Airbnb guests.

Since its launch, the number of buildings in the program has increased 43 percent to more than 250 properties. The program is now available in 38 cities.

Airbnbs and other short-term rentals have been under fire across the country. Moratoriums and regulations have been enacted throughout New York’s Hudson Valley and various restrictions are being imposed or discussed in New York City and Albany.

At the state level, a lawmaker introduced a bill to aid municipalities’ efforts to track, regulate and tax short-term rentals through a statewide registry.

— Holden Walter-Warner