Behind The News: Karin O’Flanagan, Airbnb host

The announcement this week that online hospitality business Airbnb is passing on details of its hosts to the Revenue Commissioners comes as no surprise to Airbnb host Karin O'Flanagan.

“In many ways, Airbnb is the modern iteration of Irish B&B in the 1950s and 1960s and more regulation was bound to come at some stage,” she says. The online hospitality firm informed all hosts that it was legally bound to pass on their details to the Revenue earlier this week.

O’Flanagan was one of the first Airbnb hosts in Dublin when she started renting rooms in her Mountjoy Square home with the international online business in April 2012. “I already had a lot of experience renting accommodation, and I use it for renting out self-contained units in my restored Georgian house so I’m not a typical Airbnb host.”

The size and standards of Airbnb accommodation vary hugely, from tiny bedrooms in shared apartments to large houses vacated by families decamped to mobile homes by the seaside in the summer months. And everything in between. Success on Airbnb is based largely on the reviews of visitors.

Already registered on the Private Residential Tenancies Board for long-term lettings, O’Flanagan says she has been tax-compliant since she started letting out rooms on Airbnb. She does, however, have some sympathy for Airbnb hosts who rent bedrooms in their home on a more occasional basis. “As far as I understand it, the legislation around letting a room in your house tax-free up to €12,000 doesn’t specify the length of time the room is rented for,” she says.

Aisling Hassell from Airbnb said earlier this week host income has always been taxable and Airbnb has always made that clear. Yet, she also said, “Airbnb challenged Revenue’s clarification that the room-to-let tax relief scheme did not apply to its hosts and believed there were grounds for that challenge.”

About 200 Airbnb hosts attended a meeting in the company’s European headquarters in Dublin this week to seek advice. Following the meeting, Hassell said Airbnb will be “actively working with our community to see what we can advocate on their behalf with the Revenue and with the Government prior to the next budget”.

Meanwhile, O’Flanagan believes there will be other important issues – such as fire safety – for Airbnb hosts to consider if host numbers continue to grow. “I’ve got a fire plan in my home, a fire-detection system and emergency lighting. Someone renting a room in a private house won’t have this, and this type of regulation probably won’t change until there’s a tragedy of some sort,” says O’Flanagan.

Although designated as a super host by Airbnb, she says she doesn’t engage much with the online Airbnb forum. “I’m not taken in by the touchy-feely stuff. Airbnb is one of the fastest growing tech companies in the world. They charge 3 per cent of the cost of the room to me and take 7-12 per cent from the guests,” she says.