Home-sharing company Airbnb is currently under fire after the company released a controversial ad campaign last week. The ads have stoked high tensions between the business community and long-term residents in San Francisco, which is in the middle of an affordable-housing crisis.
Airbnb's controversial ad campaign, which has been popping up in several billboards around the city, came in advance of a public vote on Proposition F. According to Associated Press, Proposition F on the Nov. 3 San Francisco ballot would impose stricter restrictions on the use of Airbnb in the city. It would also limit short-term rentals to 75 days per year and require hosting companies like Airbnb to yank listings that violate the limit.
"Dear Public Library System," one billboard ad read, "We hope you use some of the $12 million in hotel taxes to keep the library open later. Love, Airbnb." As per Refinery29 another stated, "Dear Board of Education, Please use some of the $12 million in hotel taxes to keep art in schools."
Meanwhile, Airbnb denies any role in the city's affordable-housing problems. As said by Christopher Nulty of Airbnb, 94 percent of the city's 5,000 listing are people listing their long-term residence.
"Prop F is a hotel-backed measure that is falsely drawing a line between regular San Franciscans sharing their homes and a decades-long housing crisis," he said.
As for its malicious ad campaign that angered several San Francisco residents after it was unveiled on Oct. 21, the world's largest home-share platform Airbnb has apologized to the public and vowed to take down the billboards and bus stop posters.
"We apologize for Wednesday's SF ads," the San Francisco startup tweeted, as per Agence France-Presse. "They displayed poor judgment and do not live up to the values and humanity of our global community."
On Oct. 22, Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky also acknowledged the company's failure to its employees.
"Yesterday I heard from so many of you about how embarrassed and deeply disappointed you were in us," Chesky wrote. "You were right to feel this way. No one thought we were capable of such a thing. No one ever should."
Chesky's email came as a response to an email from Airbnb marketing chief, Jonathan Mildenhall.
"Yesterday, we failed you, our community, our brand and our hometown," Mildenhall wrote. He also noted the ads were "fundamentally inconsistent" with Airbnb's corporate values, adding the company is looking for ways to "work with the organizations we've wronged to make this right."
Airbnb, which was founded in 2008, now operates in 190 countries and has more than 2 million listings. While it has declined to comment on the emails, a source close to the company confirmed its authenticity to CNET.
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