Report: Airbnb Takes Bite Out of San Francisco's Rental Market

A San Francisco newspaper's analysis of local Airbnb listings indicates that the property sharing service has taken a bite out of the city's available stock of rental housing as some landlords and housing activists contend.

The San Francisco Chronicle had a data harvesting company analyze one day's worth of Airbnb's inventory to see what kind of places the rental web site's hosts were offering and if the accommodations were being rented for short or long periods.

The analysis by Connotate Inc. found that almost two-thirds of the 4,798 listings were for whole apartments or houses, 160 of which appeared to be occupied full-time.

The Chronicle says that's significant because Airbnb has been promoted as a humble service that allows people with spare rooms or who will be away for a few days to participate in the "sharing economy.''

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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