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Hodge launches holiday let mortgage for sharing economy
Reading Time: 2 minutesUK: Specialist lender Hodge has launched a new holiday let mortgage so that properties can be let out via rental platforms such as Airbnb and owners can fill their 90-day annual occupancy limit. The holiday let mortgage will allow customers to lend up to £1.5 million and has a maximum lending age of 95. Early […]
Airbnb starts work on Italian Villages community project
Reading Time: < 1 minuteItaly: Airbnb has commenced work on a communal village initiative, “Italian Villages” project, which is aimed at promoting 40 villages across Italy and redeveloping historic public buildings. The scheme is a collaboration between Airbnb and MiBACT [which is sponsored by ANCI], which is working across the villages of Sambuca di Sicilia, Civita di Bagnoregio, Lavenone […]
Airbnb launches “Cooking” category for home cooks worldwide
Reading Time: 2 minutesWorldwide: Airbnb has launched the latest arm of its Experiences activity series – “Cooking” – which will ensure travellers can partake in culinary classes taught by locals around the world. The company reported that bookings for food and drink-themed experiences have shot up by 160 per cent since 2018 alone, following the launch of its […]
Paris and Toronto at odds with Airbnb IOC / IPC partnership
Reading Time: 3 minutesWorldwide: Hoteliers in the cities of Paris and Toronto have expressed dismay at Airbnb’s recent global partnership with the Olympic and Paralympic federations, with the former now calling for a referendum on short-term rentals in the city. Following the partnership announcement this week, French hoteliers have suspended their collaboration with the 2024 Games in Paris […]
Airbnb COO Johnson steps down to join board
Reading Time: < 1 minuteUS: Airbnb COO Belinda Johnson has announced she is stepping down from her role in March 2020, when she will then join the company’s board. The news comes in the middle of a turbulent period for Airbnb as it prepares to go public at some point early next year. In her departure statement, she cited […]
Airbnb partners with TAT and launches Beyond Big Cities
Reading Time: < 1 minuteThailand: Airbnb has announced a collaboration deal with the Tourism Authority of Thailand [ TAT ] and launched a joint website called Beyond Big Cities. The site will leverage Airbnb’s digital technology expertise to drive domestic and international travel to niche, less-visited destinations throughout Thailand, which will support local community-led tourism. Airbnb head of public […]
Orinda City Council prohibits non-hosted rentals
Reading Time: 2 minutesCalifornia: Orinda City Council has approved an emergency outright ordinance which prohibits ‘non-hosted’ rentals and placed new restrictions on ‘hosted’ venues. It comes three weeks after five people were shot and killed at a short-term rental property advertised on Airbnb in the city on the outskirts of San Francisco, which turned into a one-night ‘party […]
Royal family lists palace suite on Airbnb for the first time
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIndia: A suite at the City Palace of Jaipur has been listed for guests to book on Airbnb – the first time that any royal family around the world has done so. The Gudliya Suite at the 300-year-old City Palace will be hosting travellers from 23 November after Maharaja Sawai Padmanabh Singh decided to offer […]
Airbnb appoints Baldoza as regional head of comms
Reading Time: < 1 minuteAsia: Airbnb has appointed Belle Baldoza as its new head of comms in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Baldoza’s career portfolio already includes Uber, where she held the role of head of consumer comms for the APAC region, and she has also previously worked for Netflix [consumer PR lead for Southeast Asia] and Spotify […]
Airbnb pledges to verify all listings for the first time
Reading Time: 2 minutesWorldwide: In response to a number of scandals and incidents in recent years, Airbnb has announced it will verify each listing on its platform for the first time since it launched in 2008. Last week, the rental platform pledged to ban so-called ‘party houses’ after a shooting incident at a property in Orinda, San Francisco, […]