Ben Breit, Airbnb Midwest Public Affairs
Phone: (847) 274-5456
Email: benjamin.breit@airbnb.com
GREEN BAY, WI — Airbnb, the world’s leading community driven hospitality company, announced today that it delivered over $114,000 in home sharing tax revenue on behalf of its Green Bay hosts in the first year of its tax agreement with the city, far exceeding initial projections.
In July 2017, Airbnb announced a tax agreement with Green Bay, authorizing the home sharing platform to automatically collect the 10% Green Bay room tax on behalf of its host community and remit the revenue directly to the city. That agreement took effect August 1, 2017, infusing a new revenue stream for the city to fully capitalize on more people visiting Green Bay and staying longer through home sharing — and ahead of the 2017 football season.
At the time of the 2017 partnership, Airbnb noted that “Based on past year figures, Airbnb conservatively expects it will annually collect and remit at least $55,000 on behalf of its Green Bay host community.” The $114,000 in revenue nearly doubled those projections. This is largely due to continued growth among the local Airbnb community in the city and throughout Wisconsin. Throughout the duration of the tax agreement, over 7,400 guests have experienced Green Bay, representing 57% year-over-year growth.
This comes as the Green Bay host community welcomes the largest influx of Airbnb guests in the history of the platform, as the Packers welcome the 49ers this evening. This past weekend (through Monday), Green Bay Airbnb hosts have welcomed a record 900 guests while earning a combined $385,000 in supplemental income. 30% of the guests over this stretch are from California.
In addition to the tax agreement with Green Bay, Airbnb also has agreements in place to collect and remit taxes for the cities of Madison and Racine. And through a tax agreement with the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, Airbnb collects and remits the state sales tax on all Wisconsin bookings.
Statewide data indicates that Airbnb and its host community appear to be complementing — rather than competing with — the Wisconsin hotel industry. Reports from Wisconsin Hotel & Lodging Association demonstrate that Wisconsin hotel occupancy rates, daily prices and revenue have grown steadily, in parallel to Airbnb’s growth. This suggests that Airbnb is opening up the state to a new slice of prospective tourists by catering to travelers less able to afford hotels, those who desire to stay in neighborhoods or cities that lack hotels, and families who prefer to be together under one roof.
About Airbnb
Founded in 2008, Airbnb’s mission is to create a world where people can belong through healthy travel that is local, authentic, diverse, inclusive and sustainable. Airbnb uniquely leverages technology to economically empower millions of people around the world to unlock and monetize their spaces, passions and talents to become hospitality entrepreneurs. Airbnb’s accommodation marketplace provides access to 5+ million unique places to stay in more than 81,000 cities and 191 countries. With Experiences, Airbnb offers unprecedented access to local communities and interests through 15,000 unique, handcrafted activities run by hosts across 1,000+ cities around the world. Airbnb’s people-to-people platform benefits all its stakeholders, including hosts, guests, employees and the communities in which it operates.
