185,000 guests used Airbnb this winter in Sierra; Hosts earned $32 million

Short-term vacation rentals in the Sierra from Truckee to Bear Valley earned more money this winter and brought in more guests than in the past, according to a report released by Airbnb.

More than 185,000 visitors booked rooms or homes from Airbnb hosts during the 2016-17 winter, up 48 percent from last winter. Also on the rise were earnings by hosts, revealing the surge of short-term rentals that have put neighbors against neighbors, and had community leaders grappling with their impact on neighborhoods.

The online marketplace of lodging opportunities for hosts and guest started in 2008 with the first South Lake Tahoe homes being listed on their website in 2009. For their Lake Tahoe statistics, the communities of Carnelian Bay, Crystal Bay, Glenbrook, North Lake Tahoe, Kirkwood, Truckee, Stateline, Dollar Point, Tahoma, Kings Beach, Kingsbury, Soda Springs, Sunnyside-Tahoe City, Bear Valley, Markleeville, Zephyr Cove, Tahoe Vista, and South Lake Tahoe were all included. The hosts of the 4,400 listings in this group as a whole earned $32 million.

In South Lake Tahoe, hosts earned $12.5 million with the average host earning $16,600 between November 15, 2016 and April 15, 2017. The data released by Airbnb shows 55 percent of the hosts are female and the average age is 46.

When looking at who the South Lake Tahoe renters are, Airbnb released that information as well:

16 percent come from San Francisco, 13 percent San Jose, 4 percent Oakland, 3 percent Los Angeles and 2 percent Sacramento. There were 80,500 guests staying in the properties for an average of 2.7 nights and paying $65 per person per night (The average price for a listing was $348). 32 percent of these guest nights were mid-week. The figures for the rest of the Sierra communities in this report were close to the same.

In Truckee, hosts earned $7.9 million from their 37,200 guests.