Airbnb hosts in certain US cities, like New York and Santa Monica, have been completely banned from renting their apartments and homes due to changes in local laws. Meanwhile, Nashville appears to be encouraging more home-sharing in the city.
The recently built 328-unit Olmstead apartment complex in downtown Nashville will now be a ‘Niido Powered by Airbnb‘ building. This is a hotel-like concept, which allows residents to rent out their units on Airbnb for as many as 180 days a year. But tenants don’t get to keep all of their Airbnb earnings. They must pay the building landlord a 25% commission.
This is an interesting concept for fans of home-sharing, including hosts and guests. But I imagine it will increase the rental rates in the apartment building because tenants will be able to generate income from their units. And if it’s successful, I’m sure other nearby buildings will adopt similar business models.
Niido buildings aren’t your typical apartment complexes either. Each Niido complex has a host for the building, which is similar to a front desk concierge at a hotel. And the company offers professional cleaning services to residents who choose to host on Airbnb. Niido apartment buildings also offer community spaces for barbecues, game nights, cooking classes, happy hours, pool parties and live music.
You might hear about many more of these conversions in the future. Niido is a Miami-based company that partnered with Airbnb and has since raised hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase apartment buildings in the US. Company executives have said they want to own and operate 14 Airbnb rental properties by 2020.
But so far, not everyone is a fan of the concept. Existing residents of the Olmstead were apparently surprised to learn their building was being converted to a permanent Airbnb complex.
We’re curious to hear what you think of the Niido concept. Let us know in the comments below!
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