Hotel industry using grassroots groups to lobby against Airbnb
Trade group the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA), whose members include Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide and Hyatt Hotels, is using grassroots organisations as part of a campaign to thwart online accommodation site Airbnb, according to documents seen by the New York Times. As well as allying itself with affordable housing groups, neighbourhood associations, hotel labour unions and politicians, the AHLA is lending its weight to AirbnbWATCH, a group of "concerned individuals and organisations" it said is working to "rein in commercial operators". Airbnb may go public next year with a mooted valuation of $30bn.
SAN FRANCISCO — Last year, Airbnb underwent a rough regulatory patch.

The short-term rental company became a Federal Trade Commission target last summer after three senators asked for an investigation into how companies like Airbnb affect soaring housing costs. In October, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York signed a bill imposing steep fines on Airbnb hosts who break local housing rules.

The two actions appeared unrelated. But one group quietly took credit for both: the hotel industry.

In a presentation in November, the American Hotel and Lodging Association, a trade group that counts Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide and Hyatt Hotels as members, said the federal investigation and the New York bill were “notable accomplishments.”

Both were partly the result of a previously unreported plan that the hotel association started in early 2016 to thwart Airbnb. The plan was laid out in two separate documents that the organization presented to its board in November and January. In the documents, which The New York Times obtained, the group sketched out the progress it had already made against Airbnb, and described how it planned to rein in the start-up in the future.

The plan was a “multipronged, national campaign approach at the local, state and federal level,” according to the minutes of the association’s November board meeting.