The 30-second advert, paid for by the Hotel Association of New York City and and Local 6, a local trade union, will run in prime morning and evening spots in New York City, on channels including CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, and during Yankees and Mets games.
Previous anti-Airbnb ad campaigns in New York have pointed out that it has been illegal to list and host guests for less than 30 days in multiunit buildings in the city since 2010.
But the new campaign says short-term rental listings could potentially be bases for terrorists, citing the recent terror attack in Manchester, whose perpetrator Salman Abedi used a short-term rental property as a base.
Bjorn Hanson, clinical professor at NYU's Jonathan M. Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism, said: "It is an effective ad despite the extreme scariness of the message about terrorists because it will cause many viewers to think more broadly about who is staying in units in their buildings and neighbourhoods, even if not terrorists, maybe others involved in illegal or troubling activity or with bad other bad behaviours."
Airbnb spokesperson Peter Schottenfels said the ad was "an outrageous scare tactic by big hotels who themselves have a long history of lodging people who engage in acts of terror".
Click here to watch the advert.
Editor's Comment
You certainly can't accuse the Hotel Association of New York City of timidity - its latest anti-Airbnb advert is in your face, and uses scare tactics to suggest that any Airbnb apartment could potentially be harbouring a terrorist.
Citing the Manchester terror attacks is certainly an emotive, some might say insensitive move, particularly by a New York-based organisation.
It also has an element of swimming against the tide about it, particularly when seen against the backdrop of major hotel chains acquiring short-term rental companies and integrating them as part of their offer rather than adopting a 'them and us' stance. Accor and Wyndham are just two that spring to mind, with their recent acquisitions of Onefinestay and LoveHomeSwap.
One would also imagine that Airbnb has pretty deep pockets when it comes to legal fees, and will be monitoring ads such as these with a hawk-like vigilance. The battle lines are certainly drawn in the Big Apple.
