--START--Why Airbnb Can't Crack Las Vegas - Condé Nast Traveler

Airbnb just can't make a name for itself into Sin City. We dug to find out why.

Las Vegas is a place that’s easy to shorthand. Mention Sin City and it instantly conjures up enduring images: think Celine vs Britney, miniskirted cocktail waitresses, day-to-night pool parties, the strip or The Strip, morning after regret. What’s rarely front of mind at this vacation hotspot? Oddly, the biggest hospitality trend of the last few years: Airbnb.

Little wonder, given the stringent constraints on Airbnb and co placed here since 2014. These include levying a non-refundable $500 permit application fee on any would-be short-term rental operator, limiting overnight guests to 12 or fewer per property, and even denying such permits to any new Airbnbs within 660 feet of any existing listing. Then, in June, Sin City Council decided to further throttle Airbnb’s bandwidth. It announced that would-be hosts must now spend another $1,030 on a special use permit; if a home has five or more bedrooms, owners must also keep a licensed security company on call to tackle complaints. The council is so keen to see the new laws enforced it’s also prepping a 24-hour tipster line so the nosy can inform on the noisy. (Nearby North Las Vegas has none of these rules on rentals.)

Clearly, Las Vegas aims to tamp down enthusiasm for home-renting there. “Can you blame them? The city owes everything to the hospitality industry,” says Jason Clampet, co-founder of travel consultancy Skift. “Think of the jobs, the pensions, the retirement accounts, and the residential neighborhoods that are there because of the industry. Why put real jobs that earn real salaries at risk to appease a Silicon Valley company where every host is an independent contractor who can be eliminated on a whim?”

Industry insiders suggest the strictures are working. “[Airbnb is] not even something I consider a presence in Las Vegas. I haven’t noticed a change in our demand, or an extreme customer shift away,” says Colleen Birch, SVP of revenue at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.

Think of the jobs, the pensions, the retirement accounts, and the residential neighborhoods that are there because of [hotel] industry.

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But might Airbnb and its ilk truly pose an existential threat to hotels here? Current data suggests that Birch’s confidence is well placed. Airbnb hasn’t snatched market or mindshare in Las Vegas in the same way as it has in tourist hubs like New York, Paris or London—per industry figures, 340,000 visitors used the platform for overnighting in 2016 across the whole state of Nevada. On the surface, it seems like a huge number, for sure, but paltry in comparison with Airbnb’s total visitor tally: 42.9 million. That’s not even one percent.

One major reason, at least according to Vegas magazine editor Andrea Bennett Gardner, is the lopsidedness of Las Vegas’ appeal: it’s limited almost entirely to one, four-mile long attraction. “The Strip is the epicenter of all the stuff that happens here, and even for people who’ve been many, many times, it’s constantly changing,” she explains. “The shelf life of a club is so short here, that even for a frequent visitor, there will be a couple new places next time you come.” There are a few furtive listings of condo rooms in hotel complexes on Airbnb’s site, but understandably, hotels are keen to clamp down on such sublets.

It isn’t just regulations or neighbor complaints that have reduced bachelor or birthday party house-rentals either, Bennett Gardner says. “You can get such inexpensive group rates [at hotels] now. Why wouldn’t you stay in a hotel in the center of everything when you can get a room for less than $100 a night, and have swimming pools, restaurants, and all the things you need right there on-property?” Consider, too, the loyalty programs run by the Strip-based hotels, including MGM’s M Life or Harrah’s Total Rewards. They’re both generous, and straddle several properties making it easy to rack up status, so even semi-regular visitors can snare attractive deals and bonuses to sweeten their next stay.

Are Airbnbs Better Than Hotels?

Clampet doesn’t see homesharing impacting Sin City’s hotels any time soon, either. “Vegas is a city of enclosed, well air-conditioned places that are fueled by large conferences and smaller gatherings of people who just want to have a good time with the fewest hassles possible. That's not Airbnb's bread and butter,” he continues. “Airbnb does a good job creating a storyline of places that others don't see. If they can do that here, maybe they can have more success.”

Claire Sinclair is a superhost, and one of the only people holding multiple Airbnb licenses in Clark County—all thanks to her distinctive approach near Vegas’s tourist hub. The former Playboy Playmate of the Year headlined the burlesque show Pin Up on the Strip for several years, until it closed in March. She’d already prepped her next act, though, and it was one inspired by her favorite hotel. “I’ve always loved the Madonna Inn [in San Luis Obispo] and I’ve gone there for vacation every year since I was 16. I hoped that maybe one day I’d get the opportunity to do something like it,” explains the model, now 26. So Sinclair ploughed her savings into a modernist apartment complex downtown with the aim of turning it into a kitschy, quirky crashpad with the help of her DIY-enthusiast bartender boyfriend, Jon Crowder. Together, the pair now runs Clairbnb; it has five individually themed rooms, with two more planned. Sinclair’s hands-on approach was likely what won over cautious neighbors, spending five months knocking on their doors to explain her plans and solicit support, ginger snaps in hand. “I was nervous as hell–downtown Vegas is full of colorful characters–but they were so excited,” she explains.

The 700-square-foot units are aimed at couples, rather than groups; the Beauty and the Beast room is anchored by an enormous, four-poster bed, while all that’s missing from the avocado-walled 1970s bachelor pad is a wardrobe stocked with polyester flares. Sinclair and Crowder roadtest each room for a week before welcoming guests and offer thoughtful touches like free munchies. The couple’s hands-on enthusiasm differentiates the listings both from generic homes offered by absentee landlords and the anonymity of a mega hotel. Sinclair has ambitious plans for the lodging world, thanks to a potential investor who wants to export her concept to other cities, but she’s determined not to change her Airbnb M.O. “I will still live at every location to make sure it’s done meticulously.” Try doing that in a 3,000-room hotel.

https://www.cntraveler.com/story/why-airbnb-cant-crack-las-vegas