Can Airbnb Provide Livable Incomes to Property Owners?: An Analysis on National, Regional and City District Level

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the Airbnb payoffs on the macro (global), mezzo (national) and micro (city) level. The main aim of the paper is to pilot a methodology for exploring, whether Airbnb can serve as a source for income replacement. Combining a variety of data sources on the affluence of a given location, we aim to estimate the potential payoffs to property owners from renting out a property on Airbnb vis-à-vis the living cost in that place. We discover a great variety of payoffs between individual countries, regions and city districts, which appear to be quite complex and cannot be universally simplified to indicators such as prosperity or tourists visits. Many interesting patterns found in this study would require further examination.

Keywords: Airbnb, On-Demand Economy

JEL Classification: M13