Airbnb’s home-hotel hybrid will open in Florida next year

While Airbnb continues to grow its number of hosts and guests on the platform, sending the hotel industry into a frenzy, landlords and building owners don’t share the same enthusiasm for the home-sharing platform as Airbnb users.

But the company has a new plan that gets each party on board with home-sharing.

The company is collaborating with development firm Newgard Development Group to build a 324-unit building in Kissimmee, FL that will be branded as an Airbnb building. Tenants in the building will be able to rent their apartments or individual rooms (exclusively on Airbnb, of course) for up to 180 days of the year, and will be encouraged to do so. The first building will be called Niido, powered by Airbnb.

Airbnb guests who rent units in the building will have access to hotel-style amenities, which includes an app for hosts that can remotely trigger a MasterHost, presumably a Niido employee, to handle things like check-ins, cleanings and linens. Guests will also have access to an on-demand concierge, as well as luggage storage.

Tenants who choose to rent out their spaces on Airbnb will be automatically enrolled in the company’s Friendly Buildings Program, which launched in September of 2016. The program allows hosts to share revenue from each rental with the landlord or building owner.

Airbnb says that 11,000 units are enlisted in the Airbnb Friendly Buildings Program, which is a relatively small number, considering Airbnb has more than 4 million listings on the platform. Still, the program is relatively nascent and likely will build momentum on the heels of the Niido project. On average, tenants share 15 percent of revenue with landlords/owners.

Bloomberg reports that Airbnb won’t have an ownership interest in the building, though it isn’t clear if Airbnb is charging a licensing fee for the use of its brand name. Newgard, on the other hand, will share in profits from the building’s Airbnb rentals, which it will use to develop similar properties.

We reached out to Airbnb for more information on how it will generate revenue from this project and others like it, other than the general growth of home-sharing.

Niido in Florida will open in the first quarter of next year, with another property planned for somewhere in the southeastern United States.

Featured Image: Ron Reiring/Getty Images