After an expensive, summer-long political campaign, a measure that would have regulated Airbnb in San Francisco is failing in early polls by 57% of 91,000 votes.
Caroline O'Donovan / BuzzFeed News
In early results from a citywide election, 57% of San Franciscans voted Tuesday against a local ballot proposition that would have imposed restrictions on home-sharing platforms such as Airbnb, according to early poll returns of 91,000 ballots.
Had the measure passed, Proposition F would have limited short-term rentals in the city to 75 days a year, required hosts and Airbnb to report regularly to the city, allowed neighbors to take each other to court over violations, and banned the renting of in-law units, among other things.
Airbnb reportedly spent more that $8 million to defeat Proposition F through a political campaign called SF for Everyone. Earlier this month, BuzzFeed News reported that for every minute of television commercials that aired in favor of Proposition F, there were 100 minutes of ads against the measure.
Meanwhile, the campaign backing Proposition F — a coalition of neighborhood activists, affordable housing supporters, hotel union workers, and others working as part of the national Share Better coalition — raised less than $1 million, most of it from Unite Here, a hotel workers union. (That campaign advertised as well — albeit far less than the No on F campaign — and had the backing of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and actor Danny Glover.)
Polling had indicated that it was unlikely the ballot measure — which, once passed, can only be altered by yet another ballot measure — would pass.
That said, Airbnb's campaign did suffer from some public perception setbacks. Some criticized SF for Everyone's mailers and ads, which claimed that the proposition would turn neighbor against neighbor, as a form of bullying, and even fear-mongering; others were critical of the considerable expenditure by the company.
But the biggest blow came when, unbeknownst to the No on Prop F campaign, Airbnb's internal marketing team approved an embarrassing ad campaign that, after evincing eye-rolls as far away as New York City, was removed by the company immediately. Though Airbnb has since refused to comment on the debacle, it brought to light some of the city's resentment of the company:
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment