The multibillion dollar lodging startup Airbnb has apologized for a series of forthright ads they placed on bus shelters throughout the Bay Area that tell municipal agencies in San Francisco what they can do with the millions in city hotel taxes their company is paying.
Advertisement
In what is probably not a coincidence, the ads appeared only two weeks before California is set to vote on a Proposition F could greatly restrict short-term rentals at Airbnb facilitates.
The Proposition A bond measure would provide $310 million for rehabilitating and building housing for low-to-middle-income households.
Airbnb has been apologizing to the public, as well as their employees since the campaign launched on Wednesday, October 21.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, one ad reads “Dear Public Library System, We hope you use a few of the $12 million in hotel taxes to keep the library open later”.
Airbnb has spent more than $8 million to fight San Francisco’s Proposition F, a proposal on the November ballot to ban the sharing-economy website from serving the city.
Supporters of Mr. Carlson’s perspective say the online home-sharing process is removing much needed affordable housing options from the city. As said by Christopher Nulty of Airbnb, 94 percent of the city’s 5,000 listing are people listing their long-term residence.
Airbnb quickly came to its senses and retracted the ads, sending around a company-wide email apologising for the campaign that CNet got its hands on.
Airbnb has apologised on Twitter and will be taking down its billboard ad campaign in San Francisco. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky wrote to his employees: “Yesterday I heard from so many of you about how embarrassed and deeply disappointed you were in us”. No one thought we were capable of such a thing.
According to an e-mail sent by Chief Marketing Officer Jonathan Mildenhall, tweeted an apology on Thursday prior to Airbnb’s Twitter post apology.
Advertisement
“Yesterday, we failed you, our community, our brand and our hometown”. 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”.
