Airbnb's Multifamily Play

In its bid to add more hosts, Airbnb is placing tenants with the biggest multifamily owners

Denver’s Sentral Union Station, part of the Airbnb-friendly apartments program.

For most multifamily owners, “Airbnb” evokes thoughts of illegal sublets, noise complaints, and tourists wheeling suitcases through the lobby. But over the past year, Airbnb has been slowly converting multifamily owners from adversaries into partners. And they’ve started with some of the biggest names in multifamily: Greystar, UDR, Starwood Capital, and Equity Residential, to name a few.

Since late 2022, Airbnb has been winning over multifamily owners with a simple ask: open your building to short-term rentals, and we’ll supply a stream of hosts to fill your vacant apartments. As of today, over 400 multifamily buildings have signed up for the program, which has the potential to fundamentally reshape the relationship between short- and long-term housing–with serious implications for the STR sector in particular.

Today’s letter dives into the “Airbnb-friendly apartments” program (AFA) and features a discussion with Jesse Stein, Airbnb’s Global Head of Real Estate. Specifically, we’ll tackle:

• The structure of the program;

• Early results and expansion;

• Airbnb’s emerging relationship with multifamily owners;

• The future of the program and its likely impact on Airbnb, multifamily, and the STR sector in particular.