In 2020, Airbnb launched the City Portal as a first-of-its-kind resource to help local governments and tourism organizations better understand the Airbnb landscape and tourism trends in their community, as well as offer tools to help cities enforce their short-term rental laws.
Three years later, we’ve expanded the City Portal to more than 430 jurisdictions around the world and remain the only short-term rental platform that offers local governments this kind of technology. We continue to innovate to ensure home sharing strengthens communities, and spent the past few years gathering feedback from users to make improvements to the City Portal.
Today, we’re excited to introduce new features that make the City Portal an even more valuable resource for governments and tourism organizations around the world.1
New tools to help users directly engage with their local Airbnb Host community and encourage responsible hosting practices. Specifically, users will be able to find their local Airbnb Host club to connect with Hosts about issues related to short-term rentals. They’ll also be able to request a Responsible Hosting Page — a dedicated web page that offers both governments and Hosts an easy-to-find resource on how to comply with local short-term rental rules.
Expanded data insights to help city leaders and tourism officials make informed decisions about short-term rentals and tourism in their community. These include metrics on the number of guests in a given month, aggregated insights into where guests are traveling from, survey data on the average amount an Airbnb guest spends per day, and top local business recommendations from Hosts, among others.2
Improved compliance capabilities to help local governments enforce their short-term rental laws. In jurisdictions with applicable short-term rental laws, government officials can use the City Portal to search for listings in their registration system and take action on listings they determine violate local regulations.
Streamlined user interface to help users more easily access key Airbnb tools and resources. These include our 24/7 Neighborhood Support Line, dedicated law enforcement portal, and informational articles on how we handle community disturbances, information requests from law enforcement, anti-discrimination and accessibility on our platform, and other important issues.
“The City Portal’s tools help maintain the city’s regulations, which is vital to daily operations.”
—Alicia Fong, Housing Protection Division Manager, Short-Term Rental Division, Inglewood, California
“The City Portal is an invaluable tool that provides valuable insights into the behavioral trends of tourists…This wealth of information is instrumental in designing effective public policies and impactful promotional campaigns.”
—Mauricio Arceo, Secretary of Tourism, Campeche México
“Through the data we receive from Airbnb, we. . .can obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the market in the hospitality sector, such as destination trends and traveler behavior, among others, and thus better direct support work to the state’s tourist municipalities.”
—Luciana Derze, Consultant, Market Intelligence São Paulo, Brazil
Ongoing efforts to support local governments and communities
The updates to the City Portal are part of our ongoing efforts to work collaboratively with lawmakers to balance the benefits of home sharing with the needs of communities. For example, we recently announced the Airbnb Housing Council to identify unique solutions to housing affordability challenges in partnership with housing experts, elected officials, and academic institutions across the US.
In recent years, Airbnb has also played an important role in spreading travel beyond traditional urban centers by offering unique, affordable stays in cities and towns around the world. To help smaller communities reap the benefits of tourism and take advantage of the opportunities presented by short-term rentals, we have a dedicated team proactively reaching out to local leaders in these up-and-coming destinations. We offer them practical guidance on effective short-term rental registration systems and policies, and encourage them to use resources like the City Portal to develop fair, balanced short-term rental rules that help ensure increased tourism strengthens their communities.
Learn more about the City Portal.
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