The West side of the city is experiencing a significant increase in travelers looking for home-sharing options, according to a new community case study by Airbnb.
“Austin and Garfield Park have been two of our fastest growing neighborhoods,” said Airbnb spokesperson Benjamin Breit. “The typical West Side Airbnb host earns $3,100 a year in new income, with a combined $17.1 million overall to all of the hosts.”
One host in the Humboldt Park area says that most of the people who he rents to are artists and musicians looking for an authentic Chicago experience. Breit adding that they also get a lot of students going to music festivals or people visiting family.
“If you live in the Austin area and there’s not room in the kids home, but there’s an Airbnb listing down the street. You can hang there for $40 a night as opposed to a downtown hotel for $200 a night,” said Breit
Airbnb took heat last year with the Black community after several potential guests felt discriminated against because their names sounded too ethnic, spurring the hashtag #AirbnbWhileBlack and new, black-owned startups Innclusive and Noirbnb.
“It’s one where our founders have immediately took responsibility. We are not going to make excuses or try to explain it away. We are going to try and fix this. It is meant to be a very inclusive platform, where anybody, regardless of your race, ethnicity, and religion you can belong and have a place to stay,” said Breit.
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