Worcester Business Journal

14 Worcester Business Journal | August 6, 2018 | wbjournal.com Both rent out rooms in their homes, but bed & breakfasts and Airbnbs seek to cater to different types of visitors F O C U S H O S P I T A L I T Y & T O U R I S M BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor Source: Airbnb Local Airbnb Airbnb operations in major Central Mass. communities B rian Belliveau found himself with extra time when he retired as a firefighter, and extra space in his home when his two grown children le. So he and his wife, Linda, opened up their Fitchburg home to visitors. In 2009, they opened Howarth House, a bed and breakfast begun with just a single guestroom and now has three. At the time, Airbnb, the website letting people book a place to stay in someone's home or spare room, was just in its infancy. Almost 10 years later, Belliveau doesn't mind the competition. But as a former public safety official, he does mind what he says is an uneven playing field, with Airbnb locations not required to do what he did when he renovated his home, such as adding a sprinkler system, installing smoke detectors and emergency exit signs. "ey should be held to the same standard," Belliveau said. A decade aer Airbnb's debut, the website has turned into a behemoth, with a presence in nearly 200 countries and an influence critics say has in- creased housing prices in places where people buy a unit simply to rent it out on the website. "What I've seen from short-term rentals is that it's really putting a damper on business for bed and breakfasts," said Paul Sacco, the president and CEO of the Massachusetts Lodging Association. "e people most affected – everyone is affected to some degree – is the B&Bs." Squeezed by new competitor Two studies published this year give ammunition to those who say Airbnb hurts both residential and hospitality markets. One study from three researchers in California found for every 1 percent increase in Airbnb listings, an area had a corresponding 0.018-percent increase in rents and a 0.026-percent increase in house prices – a miniscule-sounding increase that, nationwide, has led to significant increases, the authors said. Another from researchers at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Insti- tute of Technology found even though many Airbnb bookings – between 42 percent and 63 percent, the authors said – aren't necessarily taking away from hotels, hotel revenues would be 1.5-percent higher without Airbnb. In the hospitality industry, bed and breakfasts like Howarth House used to be the little guys in the lodging industry, where visitors would choose a place for hospitality vs. B&Bs Airbnb Worcester 100 93 Framingham 40 94 Natick 30 104 Marlborough 20 48 Shrewsbury 20 32 Milford 10 34 Number Average of active number of Community hosts nights booked PHOTO/MATT WRIGHT Brian Belliveau, the owner of the Howarth House bed and breakfast in Fitchburg, which he says is subject to more standards than units rented through Airbnb.

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