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In a presentation at Airbnb headquarters in San Francisco this morning, policy chief Chris Lehane made sure that it didn’t look like Airbnb was going to rest on its laurels after yesterday’s defeat of Proposition F.
The San Francisco ballot initiative, which would have imposed stricter limitations on short-term home rental in the city, failed by a margin of 55-45 percent. The company spent more than $8 million to defeat the proposal. But Proposition F could be just the start of a longer, global battle for Airbnb, as activists attempt to put the screws to sharing-economy services by pushing for harsher regulation.
This morning, Lehane outlined a broader political strategy for how the home rental service will organize against such efforts. It will involve tapping into the millions of Airbnb guests and hosts worldwide, mobilizing them as part of a political “movement” in defense of an “economic lifeline for the middle-class.” And as Airbnb looks to grow its foreign markets — like China, for example — it will need to build a successful political operation if it wants to preserve its high-flying growth and bottom line.
Lehane declined to say how much money Airbnb has committed to growing its political organizing, saying only, “We’re gonna spend what it takes to succeed.”
Embedded below is the presentation deck that Lehane was reading from this morning. It contains a lot of impenetrable jargon, but also a lot of numbers and a useful preview of the rhetoric — pounding home the theme of middle-class benefits — that Airbnb will likely lean on in the coming months.
See anything in the slideshow that you have questions about? See something you think we should pay extra attention to? Shoot me an email at noah@recode.net.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
