Data showing how much money Queenstown Airbnb hosts are pocketing has been described as "shoddy" by the online accommodation provider.
Figures reported in The Spinoff last week suggested the "top earning host" made $2.9million in the year to October across 19 properties.
The article referred to research agency AirDNA numbers. It also put the average annual revenue in the resort as $81,992.71.
The eye-watering figure was beaten only by Auckland, which sat at $3.1million — but across 154 properties. But Airbnb’s Head of Public Policy ANZ Brent Thomas has dismissed the numbers.
"Shoddy scrap data [that] is both highly inaccurate and grossly misleading. A pinch isn’t going to do the job, you need take these unreliable figures with a whole handful of salt.
"At a time when the cost of living is sky-high, many of our hosts in Queenstown, like those right across New Zealand, rely on Airbnb as their economic lifeline."
He said the overwhelming majority of its hosts were everyday Kiwis using the service to make ends meet, pay the mortgage or to pay the bills.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council announced last month it was looking at proposals to tighten short-stay accommodation rules by restricting letting of homes in many areas of Queenstown to 28 days a year. The current limit is 90.
Planning policy manager Ian Bayliss said it did not have a direct relationship with AirDNA and could not comment on the figures.
"We can, however, confirm that wherever it came from, this figure of $2.9million of earnings did not come up during the council’s consideration of these matters.
"We can speculate that it is most likely a single property management company managing multiple properties but the data we have used to help review visitor accommodation activity in the district is sourced from Infometrics."
Infometrics produced a study for the council last month to measure the scale and scope of Airbnb across the district. It counted 4226 Airbnb listings in Queenstown-Lakes in September 2017.
The report said the number of listings has increased by 65% from 2558 in October 2016 and that there were 340,809 Airbnb stay nights booked in Queenstown-Lakes over the 12 months to September 2017. That accounted for about 14.1% of commercial accommodation unit nights.
It also noted Airbnb generated $74.5million in revenue for hosts.
An average earning from each property, estimated by dividing total revenue in the area by the number of properties available for rent over a given time period, sat at $21,265 over the year to September which was significantly higher than the New Zealand average of $8707 per property.
"Queenstown-Lakes hosts made the highest amount of money per property across 66 territorial authorities in the 12 months to September 2017."
If passed, new council rules concerning short-term visitor accommodation such as Airbnb or Bookabach would not affect anyone at present registered with the council for visitor accommodation and would not be implemented until after a full public consultation by an independent commissioner.
The proposals met with a mixed reaction when announced last month. AirDNA was approached by the ODT for comment.
