Mayor's Air of disbelief over bnb booking numbers

Noosa looks to get a handle on Airbnb to make it pay its way

SHORT STAYS: The Noosa Council believes more than 40 per cent of prestigious Witta Circle in Noosa heads is is home to the short stay holiday rentals. Picture: Peter Gardiner

A CASE of deflating Airbnb listings given to Noosa Mayor Tony Wellington has the civic leader hot under the collar.

Noosa Council is looking to be able to identify these share accommodation properties and eventually hit them with a tourism levy, especially those that are not live-at-home hosted stays.

Cr Wellington was unimpressed to receive a conflicting tally of Airbnbs in Noosa from the company that was almost half the number cited by another company representative.

"Last week I received a letter from Brent Thomas, Head of Public Policy for Airbnb in Australia and New Zealand,” the mayor said.

"The letter stated that the 'Airbnb community in Noosa has grown to more than 590 listings'.

"Yet just a few weeks previously, in response to a request from a resident, Airbnb's Emma Grover had written that: 'We have about 1100 listings in the Noosa Heads region'.”

Cr Wellington said this sort of "obfuscation” when dealing with Airbnb and similar letting platforms has been commonplace.

"Apart from providing wildly conflicting figures of properties being let, they also like to pretend that all their listings are home-hosted,” he said.

"The letter from Brent Thomas repeatedly refers to 'hosts' and the one from Emma Grover includes under her name the words 'home sharing club'.

He said Deloitte Access had noted that about 62% of listings were entire houses or units, not spare rooms in places of residence.

"Industry analysts, Inside Airbnb, put the figure even higher at 70%.”

He said Noosa Council wanted some transparency in the sector.

"It is local government's role to manage and deal with land use and the resident amenity that flows from that use.

"Until there is legislation that forces the likes of Airbnb to divulge property addresses, local government will not be able to effectively manage the impact that some of these properties have on the amenity of local neighbourhoods.”

Mr Thomas said: "It is disappointing Mayor Wellington is trying to spin an inadvertent and honest mistake shared in a private correspondence into something it isn't. There are 1100 Airbnb listings in Noosa. The typical Airbnb is booked for 39 days a year. The typical Airbnb host in Noosa earns $12,800 a year in income from hosting.

"Airbnb has been and remains committed to having a thoughtful, considered conversation about how best to regulate home sharing in Queensland, while supporting the local tourism economy. It's time for Mayor Wellington to come to the table, engage in meaningful dialogue and do the same.”