Airbnb minimizes its role in the housing crisis

The Airbnb platform sought to reassure. With the help of a communication agency, she tried to minimize her influence on the housing crisis in Switzerland. But Airbnb’s strategy is not really resistant to the figures.

No, it has nothing to do with the difficulties of average income people to find accommodation in tourist cities and regions. At least that is what the American company asserts in its Rapport Airbnb. She sent it to all the media last week.

He presents “recent conclusions”:

Because ads of type “entire housing” reserved for at least 90 nights in 2024 would only represent 0.14% of all housing units in the country. Or “only a tiny fraction of almost 4.8 million units”. The impact of Airbnb on the Swiss market would thus be “negligible”.

But that does not make much sense to extrapolate the share of Airbnb accommodation in total housing. The shortage does not strike the entire territory. According to the definition of the competent federal office, eleven cantons are experiencing a crisis. In nine others, there is shortage. And in six cantons, the offer is sufficient, even surplus, for example in the Jura.

Airbnb seems to be aware of this table. But on this point too, she tries optimism in her analysis:

These results surprise. Worse still. They contradict the calculations carried out so far by independent organizations. A 2018 study commissioned by the Zurich government concluded, for example, that this value reached 3.8% of all the goods to rent in the canton. Last March, an assessment of the city of Zurich showed that “business apartments” (Red: those reserved in a professional setting) represent 2.1% of the total market.

At a time when there are only 169 free apartments throughout the city, there are 4990 “business apartments” available on Airbnb in parallel. It is the highest number ever recorded. Compared to 2017, their share increased by around 80%. One on 50 well is no longer inhabited regularly in Zurich, But rented furnished for a short duration and managed by professionals. On platforms like the one that interests us.

An insignificant footnote

How then Airbnb reaches such a lower figure? watson asked him the question. Communication service response:

These are programs that automatically collect public information on the site and aggregate it.

Airbnb would refuse these kinds of tools, which are committed – according to her – errors and sometimes inaccuracies. “Regarding for example the update and availability of offers”.

Access to data on the influence of Airbnb to carry out independent studies is actually a problem. The company does not make its figures available to researchers. This is not a reason for the “report” to miss its target.

A footnote – trivial at first glance – allows these significant differences to better enter. The company has not compared the housing rented by the site and all of those on the market. Here is what she takes into account:

Translation: Airbnb excluded all the reservations that exceeded 28 days in a row. So precisely the accommodation that contributes most to the scarcity and increased housing: the famous business apartments.

watson wanted to know what would be the impact of the American giant if we added this category. And this, both in different cities and in the whole of Switzerland. The communication service responded in an evasive manner to our request. Even if we also taken into account the long -term rentals, their total share would still be “at a very low level”. And this, “overall, still less than 0.2% of the national market”.

The press service defends itself by explaining that IIRBNB focused on the “short periods” in its inventory. But this argument does not hold water. Indeed, the company also excluded from its calculations all the accommodation which was reserved less than 90 nights per year in 2024: short -term rentals.

On this point, the press service admits it:

Despite our requests, Airbnb did not specify what “less than 1%” meant “. Likewise, she did not want to articulate specific values ​​for long -term rentals. She would have shared “all the data she has” and, “as a listed company”, would not be able to provide others.

Few elements on tourism

What Airbnb also omits in its file is to be interested in the municipalities of the tourist regions. Indeed, like the Daily Anzeiger was able to demonstrate this in an analysis for 2024, the influence of the platform on the housing market is much more important in mountain tourist areas than in urban centers. Even more substantial in Zurich or Geneva, always affected and for multiple other reasons by a housing crisis.

In Lauterbrunnen (BE), near one in four apartment is offered on Airbnb. A Demoret (VD), one in five. It is certainly difficult to estimate to what extent they will completely disappear from the ordinary market. The president of the commune of Lauterbrunnen, Karl Näpflin, however recognized him in Daily Anzeiger:

In addition, the Swiss group for mountain regions (SAB) noted in a report in 2024: “If the practice intensified, we will witness a rarefaction of the offer on the main residence market and the prices of rents will fly away”.

It is precisely the owners of secondary residences who would rent their holiday accommodation. According to the SAB, residents and workers find it increasingly difficult to find affordable housing in tourist regions. This dynamic may at the same time cause surpourism.

Municipalities and cities go up to the niche

It is no coincidence that Interlaken, a very popular destination, was one of the first to rebel against the American company. Since 2021, the municipality has applied an obligation to register adsa moratorium on new second homes and a ban on short -term rentals in residential areas.

However, these measures do not work very well. The offenses remain tedious to detect. In September 2024, the Socialist Party of Interlaken therefore filed a popular initiative: “Protecting the habitat – regulating Airbnb”. It plans to limit rental through this kind of sites to 90 nights per year.

The local section of the PS very quickly collected twice as many signatures as necessary. The population therefore obviously has enough From this phenomenon, like many other municipalities, cities and cantons that have or will act there against it.

A similar standard entered into force on January 1ᵉʳ in Lucerne. Ditto in the canton of Geneva, Ticino and Bern. The socialists also launched an initiative in Zurich.

The publication of the “Airbnb report” therefore intervenes at a time when the pressure increases on the shoulders of the company. She called on Farner, a famous public relations agency, for the entire communication campaign. It is clear that the operation is not really successful. The media has only relayed her. And when they did, it is by emphasizing its dubious relevance.

Translated from German by Valentine Zenker

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