Nevada Airbnb hosts earned $47.4 million, welcomed 341,000 people in 2016

Airbnb’s Nevada host community earned a combined $47.4 million in supplemental income while welcoming approximately 341,000 people to the state in 2016.

Airbnb is an online marketplace and hospitality service, enabling people to lease or rent short-term lodging including vacation rentals, apartment rentals, home stays, hostel beds, or hotel rooms.

The 341,000 guest arrivals to the state via Airbnb represents 151 percent year-over-year growth. Airbnb’s Nevada host community grew to 3,700 in 2016.

For many hosts in Nevada, home sharing provides economic support; 32 percent of hosts in Nevada are over the age of 50, and the annual earnings for a typical host are $6,600.

Marisa Moret, campaign manager for Nevada mentioned in an email with NNBW that Airbnb’s fastest growing demographic is people age 60 or older.

In 2016:

51 percent of hosts in Incline Village were over the age of 50.

41 percent of hosts in Reno were over the age of 50.

43 percent of Stateline hosts were over the age of 50.

“We don’t track how people spend their money, but we do know that the average Airbnb host over the age of 65 earns $8,350 in supplemental income annually for a single listing,” She said in an email.

Since 2015, Airbnb has collected and remitted taxes for Washoe County. To date, $500,000 has been collected in taxes in Washoe County. Globally, the Airbnb community has contributed $175 million in additional tax revenue to more than 220 jurisdictions.

“We signed a Voluntary Collection Agreement (VCA) with Washoe County and Sparks, which is a tool that we developed to ensure that proper taxes are collected and remitted while relieving hosts of onerous tax filings and governments of the burden of collection and enforcement,” Moret explained. “When a jurisdiction signs a VCA with Airbnb, we collect appropriate local taxes from guests as part of their booking transactions and remit the tax revenue directly to the proper tax administrator on behalf of hosts.”

Founded in 2008, Airbnb’s mission is to create a world where people can belong when they travel by being connected to local cultures and having unique travel experiences. Its community marketplace provides access to millions of unique accommodations from apartments and villas to castles and treehouses in more than 34,000 cities and 191 countries.

“We were founded in 2008 and our hosts in Nevada came online not long after that,” Moret said. “Airbnb’s Nevada host community grew 85 percent to 3,700 in 2016.”

Airbnb is among the many in wanting to increase travel and tourism to all of Nevada.

Like many industries in northern Nevada, Airbnb also experiences some ebbs and flows in visitors.

“For Reno, there is seasonality around summertime and Christmas, with the biggest spike happening on New Year’s Eve,” Moret said. “There were more than double the number of guest arrivals on New Year’s Eve compared to the daily average.”

Moret noted that during 2016 the annual earnings for a typical host in Reno was $5,100. She also explained that 63 percent of the Airbnb host community is female.

“Airbnb is democratizing capitalism and expanding the tourism pie,” Moret said.

Moret also noted growth.

“Airbnb has seen incredible growth in each city in Northern Nevada and we expect that growth to continue,” she said.

Incline Village experienced a 93 percent growth in guest arrivals from 2015 to 2016 (8,800 guests in 2015 and 17,000 in 2016), Reno experienced an 116 percent growth in guest arrivals from 2015 to 2016 (4,900 guests in 2015 and 10,600 in 2016) and Stateline experienced a 78 percent growth in guest arrivals (10,300 in 2015 and 18,300 in 2016).

While Las Vegas topped the list for home sharing on Airbnb with 265,200 guest arrivals and $35.5 million in host income for 2016. Stateline, Incline Village and Reno are in the top five in Nevada.