These multilocation hosts are not as rare as one might expect. More than a fifth of my Airbnb hosts respondents have multiple units; one respondent in particular maintains space for twenty-five guests a night. In his words: “I own a hotel. I’m a hotelier. I just have a room here and apartment there. . . . Until I have that chain of hotels, I just have a chain of different apartments all over this island.”
In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty notes that in a slow-growth economy, wealth provides better returns than labor. As a result, those with wealth to invest will get wealthier; those without probably won’t. Or as William Alden explains, “These markets also tend to attract a class of well-heeled professional operators, who outperform the amateurs—just like in the rest of the economy. Listing a spare room on Airbnb might keep you current on your always-climbing Manhattan rent, but real entrepreneurship (as always) requires real dough.”52
While wealthier hosts can rent multiple apartments and charge by the night, lower-income residents find that the increased demand for housing in their neighborhood leads to rent increases. In 2018, McGill University researchers released a report suggesting that between 7,000 and 13,500 units of housing were removed from New York City’s long-term rental market, including 12,200 frequently rented entire-home listings that were available for rent 120 days or more.53 A 2015 study by New York Communities for Change and Real Affordability for All noted that as many as 20 percent of the vacancies in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn were listed as Airbnb apartments. The East Village led the list, with a staggering 28 percent of its units going as illegal hotel rooms on Airbnb.54 A 2015 Streeteasy report notes, “According to census data, New York City rent prices grew at almost twice the pace of income between 2000 and 2013, meaning that over time rent has taken up a much larger piece of New Yorkers’ incomes.”55 EV Grieve, an East Village blog, lists East Village residents as spending 56 percent of their incomes on market-rate rent.56
New York City has strong renter protections, but renters in other cities aren’t as lucky. In San Francisco, rent-controlled residents face the threat of owner-occupied move-ins, where an owner or immediate family member can evict a tenant in order to personally use the apartment. Although the Ellis Law, which allows landlords to leave the rental business, is a legally acceptable reason for eviction, these newly vacant apartments are often turned into Airbnb rentals, making thousands of dollars more profit each month.57
A recent Economist report on the digital revolution acknowledged the growing divide between a few lucky ones and the rest of society: “In the past new technologies have usually raised wages by boosting productivity, with the gains being split between skilled and less-skilled workers, and between owners of capital, workers and consumers. Now technology is empowering talented individuals as never before and opening up yawning gaps between the earnings of the skilled and the unskilled, capital-owners and labour. . . . [I]t is creating a large pool of underemployed labour.”58 A recent report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas found that the majority of new job growth of the past decade has come from low-skill, nonroutine manual jobs, those that “require few skills and little problem solving.” Although some of the new errand jobs may feature high pay—Instacart can pay thirty dollars a hour—no grocery run takes eight hours.59 Thirty dollars an hour is a decent income if you can get eight hours of work; it’s lousy pay if that’s all you earn in a day.
The Guardian, as part of its 2017 series on homelessness in America, identified a number of Los Angeles Uber drivers who were living out of their cars.60 Even New York Magazine has pointed out the underemployed-labor problem confronting the new gig economy, noting numerous cases of Handy home cleaners who were homeless and living in shelters.61 While it’s good that even the homeless are able to find work utilizing these platforms, Handy had received $110.7 million in investments as of November 2015—so why are any of its workers homeless?
PARTICIPANT RECRUITMENT AND METHODOLOGY
I drew my data from seventy-eight in-depth qualitative interviews with twenty-three Airbnb hosts, twenty-two TaskRabbit workers, nineteen Kitchensurfing chefs, and fourteen Uber drivers/messengers. These four services were chosen because they illustrate the diversity of businesses within the sharing or gig economy: incredibly successful, well-funded companies worth billions (Uber and Airbnb), an established but somewhat struggling start-up (TaskRabbit), and a relatively new upstart (Kitchensurfing).62 In addition, these companies were also chosen for their ability to highlight the different components of the sharing economy. For instance, all four services offer consumers access to underused physical assets (“idle capacity”), but TaskRabbit and Kitchensurfing offer consumer-to-consumer or “on demand” services, while Airbnb is about granting consumers temporary or shared access to a home. Uber focuses on the more efficient use of assets by making money from a personal vehicle and offering shared rides through uberPOOL.63
Finally, these four firms also illustrate the range of skill and capital barriers that divide services in the sharing economy (see table 1). TaskRabbit, a personal assistant service, has few barriers to involvement: workers complete an online application and attend an orientation; there is no capital investment needed. Other services, such as Kitchensurfing, required a specialized skill set and that prospective chefs audition by cooking a restaurant-worthy meal; as a result, the on-demand, prix fixe Kitchensurfing Tonight service had a high skill barrier but a low capital-investment barrier. The Kitchensurfing chef marketplace service, by comparison, required high skills and high capital-investment—workers need dependable transportation, food storage tools/facilities and cooking equipment. Airbnb and Uber involve high levels of capital investment: Airbnb requires a space that is desirable enough that other people will pay to rent it; Uber necessitates access to a relatively new car that meets Uber requirements and New York City licensing requirements that cost thousands of dollars (high-capital investment).64 However, whereas Uber skills are fairly minimal (being able to pass a driving test and background check), successful Airbnb hosting requires a level of communication with guests; successful hosting also requires creating a listing that will appeal to travelers (high-skill requirement).
Table 1 Skill and Capital Barriers to Sharing Economy Work
BACKGROUND ON SELECTED SHARING ECONOMY SERVICES
The following section provides a short history on the four services chosen and their presentation of an entrepreneurial ethos.65
Airbnb
Founded in San Francisco in 2008, Airbnb was created by two roommates who couldn’t make rent that month. In an oft-repeated story, they literally tossed down several air mattresses the weekend of the Industrial Designer Society of America Conference and rented them out to people who were unable to get hotel rooms.66 By November 2015, Airbnb provided access to more than two million rooms, and by July 2017, the number exceeded three million. The website allows hosts to list their home or extra space online and rent it out to guests. The company operates as a listing service and escrow account: payment for the host is held until the guest arrives and ensures that all is as expected.
The entrepreneurial ethos is best highlighted by comparing the bookings pages of Airbnb’s website with the pages for hosts. The opening page of the Airbnb website (see fig. 5) emphasizes sharing and community: the text announces, “Welcome Home,” and the company’s tagline is “Belong Anywhere.” According to the company’s website, Airbnb is “your home, everywhere.” There’s even a video on “how Airbnb hosts create a sense of belonging around the world.”
Figure 5. With messages like “Welcome Home,” Airbnb presents prospective guests with the idea of an open and accepting community. Screenshot by author.
The section targeted at hosts, “Earn money as an Airbnb host,” is focused on the financial- and personal-control aspect of hosting (see fig. 6). Workers are assured that “no matter what kind of home or room” they have available, Airbnb “makes it simple and secure to earn money.” For those who remain hesita
nt, Airbnb assures them that “you’re in full control of your availability, prices, house rules and how you interact with guests.” The same web page also helpfully notes how much a host can earn—in New York, that’s apparently more than thirty-two hundred dollars a month.
Figure 6. As part of the entrepreneurial ethos, Airbnb targets hosts with messages about the income potential of listing on the platform, and there is much less emphasis on community. Screenshot by author.
Airbnb takes the stance that it is a marketplace, and that control—and risk—fall on the hosts and guests. It’s believed that the earliest documented case of an Airbnb disaster was listed on a host’s blog in June 2011.67 The female host returned to her San Francisco apartment to discover that it had been ransacked by her guest and a team of accomplices:
They smashed a hole through a locked closet door, and found the passport, cash, credit card and grandmother’s jewelry I had hidden inside. They took my camera, my iPod, an old laptop, and my external backup drive filled with photos, journals . . . my entire life. They found my birth certificate and social security card, which I believe they photocopied—using the printer/copier I kindly left out for my guests’ use. . . . Despite the heat wave, they used my fireplace and multiple Duraflame logs to reduce mounds of stuff (my stuff??) to ash—including, I believe, the missing set of guest sheets I left carefully folded for their comfort.
As illustrative of Airbnb’s hands-off approach, the host reported that it took fourteen hours and outreach to an acquaintance associated with Airbnb for the company to respond to her complaints. The story was soon publicized in TechCrunch, Slate, Time, and other publications. Airbnb later implemented a twenty-four-hour emergency helpline and a one-million-dollar insurance policy that applies to eligible accommodations within the United States, Canada, and many westernized countries. However, the policy is secondary insurance. Hosts are required to file for compensation through their own homeowner’s or renter’s policy first, even though most insurance companies will not cover damage that occurs in the process of renting out one’s home.
A quick Google search for “airbnb trashed apartment” provides numerous cases of homes destroyed and possessions ruined: a drug-induced orgy in Canada, a wild party resulting in a feces-and-used-condom-covered New York City penthouse, and an “overweight orgy” Freak Fest in a New York City apartment.68 A Huffington Post article from July 2014 even provides a handy summary of “Airbnb horror stories” that includes meth addicts, stabbed hookers, hosts being evicted because of their Airbnb activities, and a squatter who refused to leave.69 Not all of stories are sensational—some are as simple as an Airbnb guest flushing sanitary napkins and causing ten thousand dollars’ worth of water damage.70 Even Airbnb user forums include stories and documentation of trashed homes; and the Abundant Host, an Airbnb listing consultant, has shared a blog post documenting a stay that included broken possessions, rule violations, and generally disruptive behavior in her own home.
While it’s true that hotels, too, experience rowdy guests and destroyed rooms, hotel rooms are known for their neutral and often nondescript decor. By comparison, many Airbnb locations are private homes with numerous unique personal effects. Additionally, the requirement that hotel guests provide a credit card and driver’s license or passport means that hotel management can identify the perpetrator or at least who should be held financially responsible for destruction. Airbnb hosts don’t have the same access to personal information and, instead, must go through Airbnb customer service to plead their case and get relief. Likewise, when a hotel room is wrecked, incoming guests can be assigned to a different room; when the same occurs in a personal home or apartment, hosts don’t usually have a backup home for themselves or their next guests. Hotels have security, and the rooms are often smaller than those of the average apartment or house, especially in New York City. To host a raging party or orgy, one generally needs the larger space and privacy offered by an Airbnb rental. Finally, there’s also the trust component: hosts who hew to the community message of the sharing economy end up being especially broadsided when the trusted strangers they let stay in their homes act like perfect strangers.
In an effort to reassure hosts that they won’t face problems, Airbnb is quick to declare, “You’re in control. You set the price for your listing, your availability, and reservation requirements for your guests.” The company also notes that its “trust and safety tools help you accept a booking only if you’re 100% comfortable.” However, this “control” and becoming 100 percent comfortable require that hosts decide who they will rent to—the responsibility for screening guests falls on their shoulders. Airbnb has a strict antidiscrimination policy, explaining, “Airbnb is an open marketplace. . . . [W]e prohibit content that promotes discrimination, bigotry, racism, hatred, harassment or harm against any individual or group, and we require all users to comply with local laws and regulations.” Yet, as mentioned earlier, research shows that guest screening and discrimination remains prevalent.71
In order to rent on Airbnb, hosts and guests must create profiles that include a full name, birthday, sex, and contact information. Although the profile process notes that sex and birthday are never shared with fellow Airbnbers, each user is urged to post a profile picture that clearly shows his or her face. Explains Airbnb, “Clear frontal face photos are an important way for hosts and guests to learn about each other. It’s not much fun to host a landscape!” Users are also expected to write a short self-description in order to “help other people get to know you.” Suggested topics include five things you can’t live without; favorite travel destinations, books, movies, shows, music, and food; your “style of traveling”; and a life motto. In addition to the personal profile, hosts post a listing profile, which includes pictures of the space for rent, a list of applicable rules (such as no smoking), and a map with a location “pin” so that prospective guests can understand where the space is in relation to landmarks and transportation.
The majority of my Airbnb interviews were conducted with hosts in the East Village. As with many New York City neighborhoods, the specific borders are open to debate and discussion. I use the New York Times real-estate section’s definition of the neighborhood, which states it is “bounded by 14th Street and East Houston Street, the Bowery/Fourth Avenue and the East River” (see map 1).72
Map 1. The East Village is often described as being bordered by East Fourteenth Street, East Houston Street, Fourth Avenue (also called the Bowery), and the East River. Map data © 2018 Google.
The East Village is known as one of the more affordable downtown areas in Manhattan. In her work on gentrification, sociologist Sharon Zukin describes the East Village as “an area where protest is a way of life and history is important. These are the sources of the neighborhood’s reputation for authenticity, and they have been preserved in the low rents and social spaces of a sometimes shabby, often funky locale of tenements and small stores.”73 The neighborhood is particularly appealing to potential Airbnb hosts: according to the New York City Population FactFinder, which draws on data from the 2012–2016 American Community Survey, slightly more than half of the housing stock is composed of small tenements (built before 1939).74 As a result, on-site building superintendents are rare and doormen are generally nonexistent. In most situations, a lack of on-site building personnel is considered a negative point: on-site supers, doormen, and porters are considered an amenity. But for Airbnb hosts, the lack of supervision is often described as a “perk” that provides the requisite level of anonymity.
Owing to this neighborhood popularity, I attempted to target Airbnb hosts in the East Village, and nineteen of the twenty-three hosts (83 percent) I interviewed had locations in the East Village; five of the hosts with listings in the East Village maintained multiple apartments that also included listings on the Upper West Side, in the West Village, and in Brooklyn. I also interviewed three hosts who lived outside of the East Village and rented their personal homes in Midtown West, Queens, and Brookly
n. One host, in an effort to hide his location, described his apartment as being in the East Village, although it was in Gramercy, a neighborhood on the north border of the East Village.
Respondents were overwhelmingly white (83 percent), with one individual identifying as black, two as racially mixed, and one declining to answer. The population of white respondents was composed of a number of white ethnics, including immigrants from Armenia, Israel, Germany, and Ireland and two from Canada. Roughly half of the participants were female (48 percent), and about half were male (52 percent). Their ages ranged from twenty-three to sixty, with nineteen between twenty and thirty-nine years old; the average age was thirty-two. Their education levels were especially high: 48 percent had a bachelor’s degree; 22 percent had a graduate degree, and an additional 22 percent were enrolled in or had completed some graduate education. Only two participants listed their educational level as “some college,” and one of those individuals was currently enrolled at a local college. Illustrative of the high cost of living in New York City, twelve of the participants listed their household income as $100,000 or more, and seven described their income as between $25,000 and $49,999. Two respondents identified their income category as $75,000–99,999, with the remaining two respondents reporting an income of less than $25,000 a year.
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