The valuation remains the same as earlier in the year, despite growing regulation concerns across the world. In San Francisco, Airbnb recently defeated Proposition F, but more cities are starting to see the effects of the company’s “shared economy” approach to rentals. Chicago is also cracking down on hosts operating in the city, after finding out 4,300 of the 4,500 locations in the city were unlicensed.
To fix relations with city leaders and regulators, Airbnb recently announced Community Compact, with the goal of paying a fair share of hotel and tourist taxes. It also plans to offer more transparency in the future, revealing how much short-term rentals are making on the service and other statistics.
It still might not be enough for some cities that see Airbnb as one of the causes of the housing crisis. In San Francisco, short-term rentals from online services are apparently one of the major factors in unaffordable housing and rent.
Airbnb remains undeterred, recently stating to French news agency AFP that it expects to become profitable next year. The startup also wants to push heavily into other cities in Europe and Asia, as interest across the world grows.
The $25.5 billion valuation puts Airbnb ahead of most hotel franchises, although the merged Marriott and Starwood alongside Hilton are still more valuable. The latter has a current value of $27.7 billion, just a stroke ahead of Airbnb.
