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We are trying to understand the 'Airbnb effect' BnBs in the southampton village ( not the town) , NY. Can you do that? How would you do that? This is our second request regarding lodging in Southampton NY.
Hello! Thanks for your question about the AirBnB effect in Southampton, NY. The short version is that we could not find a source which provided a direct answer to your question; we have therefore attempted to triangulate the answer from the available data. Based on that triangulation, we estimate there are approximately 3,600 homes listed for rent at least for part of the year in Southampton, about 28% to 40% of which are actually listed at any one time. The occupancy rate of these 1,000 - 1,440 listed homes ranges from 88% to 93%. Below you will find a deep dive of my findings.
METHODOLOGY
There have been quite a few articles written about the AirBnB effect on rentals in the Hamptons, so we started with surveying those in the hopes that someone had already compiled the quantitative data for us. Most of these articles were short on actual numbers and none provided the total number of actual AirBnB listings in the Hamptons. One article, however, linked us to Inside AirBnB, which provides statistical data for a number of different cities with AirBnB listings. Unfortunately, while it had statistical data for New York, it did not include the Hamptons.
Therefore, we went to the AirBnB site itself to find out how many listings it currently had for the Hamptons and whether it provided occupancy statistics. At certain times, most notably around the holidays, the site warned us of how few listings were still available, which enabled us to triangulate the total number of houses listed. Unfortunately, AirBnB lists all of the Hamptons together, which will skew our data somewhat. So, for example, the weekend before Christmas showed 205 listings with the warning that only 7% of the total listings were still available. This indicates that (205/.07) there are about 2,930 listings at present.
We looked ahead to July to see if this number is constant. A middle of the week time period showed 241 listings with the warning that only 12% of listings were still available. This suggests that only 2,008 homes are available for rent in July, though of course that number is likely to increase as more homeowners list their homes on AirBnB closer to the season.
We next checked Craigslist, which showed 282 houses currently for rent on Long Island, most of which are on the Hamptons side. However, due to the nature of Craigslist, we could not determine how many people had removed listings after receiving a booking.
Homeaway showed 520 listed homes available in mid-November, but unlike AirBnB, gives no indication how many homes have already been reserved. VRBO had the same number of listings and used an almost identical website template, so we suspect that Homeaway and VRBO have the same listings.
From another source, we have the number of homes registered in East Hampton (including the coast up to Montauk) since the new registry rules went into effect: 3198 houses in 2016 and 396 so far in 2017, for a total of 3,594. Based on land area, Southampton would have approximately the same number. This is consistent with the number of rentals showing on AirBnB, Craigslist, and Homeaway, assuming a certain amount of overlap. This is also consistent with there being over 8,000 units in New York.
TRIANGULATED HOME RENTAL UNITS
We therefore feel confident in triangulating that there are approximately 3,600 homes listed for rent at least for part of the year in Southampton, about 28% to 40% of which (2,000 to 2,900 listings / 7,200 total possible homes) are actually listed at any one time. The occupancy rate of these 1,000 - 1,440 listed homes ranges from 88% to 93%.
AIRBNB'S IMPACT
Business Insider has provided an excellent article discussing just what the "AirBnB effect" is. It unfortunately does not have numbers for the Hamptons, but it does give solid numbers for the effect of AirBnB rentals on overall vacancy rates: In New York, if all 8,058 AirBnB listings were made available at once, assuming demand remains the same, it would increase the number of vacant rental units by 10% to a total 4% vacancy, with the actual neighborhoods in which these AirBnB homes exist being more impacted (up to a 5% vacancy rate). Business Insider’s opinion is that AirBnB is a mixed blessing.
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, we estimate there are approximately 3,600 homes listed for rent at least for part of the year in Southampton, about 28% to 40% of which are actually listed at any one time. The occupancy rate of these 1,000 - 1,440 listed homes ranges from 88% to 93% at any one time.
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