Airbnb Sees Iowa Growth More Than Double Over 2016

Iowans who offer rooms in their homes to travelers through the online service Aribnb hosted 60,000 guests this year — a 106 percent increase over last year, the online hospitality site reported. That translates to $5.8 million in income for the owners of the nearly 1,100 homes, apartments, condos and villas offered throughout Iowa.

Airbnb, a community-driven online hospitality company in which people post rooms or whole homes for rent to travelers, said in a news release that Iowans "increasingly embrace the home-sharing platform as an opportunity to earn supplemental income and make ends meet." An Iowa host who shares a home via Airbnb typically earns about $3,600 annually in supplemental income, the company reported.

Airbnb will celebrate its 10th year in 2018. In October is reached what it called "a historic tax agreement" with the state that allows Airbnb to collect Iowa taxes from a guest's booking and handle the submissions to the state for the host sites.

"This agreement pertains to the state sales tax as well as local county and municipal hotel taxes," Airbnb reported.

The company said Des Moines led the state in hosting through Airbnb in 2017 with 11,280 guest bookings, generating $1.1 million for hosts. Iowa City was second, with half the number of bookings at 5,600, yet its hosts collected a cumulative $735,000. Other communities in the top 10 in the state were:

• Decorah: 4,070 hostings, $334,000 earned
• Dubuque: 3,740, $350,000
• Ames: 2,140, $236,000
• Cedar Rapids: 1,910, $188,000
• West Des Moines: 1,510, $149,000
• Ankeny: 1,450, $114,000
• Arnolds Park: 1,280, $188,000
• Davenport: 1,260, $128,000

Airbnb said other communities in its top 20, in order of bookings generated, were Cedar Falls, Carter Lake, Clear Lake, Coralville, Waterloo, Bettendorf, Le Claire, Sioux City, Altoona and Council Bluffs.

Airbnb is offered in 65,000 cities and 191 countries and said its listings range from treehouses to castles. Hosts set the rates and "house rules" for their accommodations. Learn more at Airbnb.com.

Image via TeroVesalainen/Pixabay