Countywide increases
Boulder
Guest Arrivals 2016: 54,800 (54% growth over 2015)
Total Host Payout 2016: $11.8 million
Erie
Guest Arrivals 2016: 568 (131% growth over 2015)
Total Host Payout 2016: $72,835
Lafayette
Guest Arrivals 2016: 2,245 (91% growth over 2015)
Total Host Payout 2016: $439,340
Longmont
Guest Arrivals 2016: 3,507 (133% growth over 2015)
Total Host Payout 2016: $540,439
Louisville
Guest Arrivals 2016: 1,198 (96% growth over 2015)
Total Host Payout 2016: $305,644
Nederland
Guest Arrivals 2016: 3,952 (141% growth over 2015)
Total Host Payout 2016: $575,569
Superior
Guest Arrivals 2016: 197 (149% growth over 2015)
Total Host Payout 2016: $43,031
Source: Airbnb
Airbnb vastly expanded its influence across all of Boulder County last year, according to newly released data from the short-term rental network.
The company reported total guest arrivals in Erie, Lafayette, Longmont, Louisville, Nederland and Superior increased by at least 90 percent in 2016, over 2015 totals.
In fact, Boulder, with a 54 percent increase, is the only one of the seven communities that did not see its visits rise by a factor of about two, or more.
Lafayette’s 91 percent increase was the county’s second-lowest. Superior’s was highest, at 149 percent.
Longmont saw 133 percent growth over 2015, with a total host payout of $540,439.
Boulder saw much more Airbnb activity than the rest of the county put together, however. With just shy of 55,500 visits, it was the second-most active host city in the state, behind Denver. It saw three times the activity that Fort Collins did and easily outpaced all of Colorado’s ski towns.
Nowhere else in Boulder County did any town or city top 4,000 visits in 2016.
The across-the-board increase in visits, naturally, brought more host income than ever before. The seven communities combined for a total host payout of $13.8 million.
The average annual earnings for an Airbnb host are $6,600, the company reports.
“For many hosts in Colorado, home sharing is an economic lifeline,” said Jasmine Mora, a spokeswoman, noting that hosts Airbnb works with say in many cases that the money helps pay bills and supplement fixed incomes.
The high increases for Airbnb have apparently not come at any major expense of hotels. Occupancy rates above about 65 percent are generally considered successful in most hotel markets, and the 2016 rates for both Boulder (71.7 percent) and the U.S. 36 corridor (74.4 percent) both easily exceeded that figure, according to the annual Rocky Mountain Lodging Report.
“Things are good for everybody,” said Mary Ann Mahoney, executive director of the Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Alex Burness: 303-473-1389, burnessa@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/alex_burness
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