Residents who rent an apartment from San Francisco’s biggest landlord may soon be able to rent out their apartment through Airbnb, thanks to an agreement between Airbnb, Veritas Investments, and Pillow, a San Francisco-based startup that helps apartment owners turn units into short-term rentals.
Under the agreement, Pillow Residential will become the preferred partner for landlords enrolled in Airbnb’s Friendly Buildings Program, which allows landlords and tenants to share the revenue generated by home sharing.
According to the companies, Pillow Residential’s services have benefits for both landlords and tenants that make short-term renting into a mutually beneficial option.
For landlords, Pillow’s tools include onboarding tenants and providing them with information about home sharing, creating and executing lease addendums that support home sharing, and working with building management to incorporate building rules into listing templates.
Pillow also provides landlords with single dashboard with information about short-term rental hosting in their building, which enables them to know which units are being rented out at any given time.
For tenants, Pillow’s tools can help create Airbnb listings that automatically include information about their building’s shared amenities, plus mobile guides for guests with information like building access codes and emergency contact information.
Veritas Investments, San Francisco’s largest apartment building and urban retail owner, is the first landlord to sign on to allow its residents to take part in the program.
Veritas will pilot the program in five of its buildings in San Francisco.
“Together, Pillow and Airbnb can give landlords and tenants access to the best tools and make home sharing better and easier for everyone,” Jaja Jackson, director of global multi-family housing partnerships at Airbnb, said. “Veritas is a leader and innovator in the real estate community and they are one of the multi-family building owners who know Airbnb is a tremendous benefit for their properties and the residents who call their buildings home.”
Yat-Pang Au, CEO of Veritas Investments, said that the company surveyed its residents, who said they want to be able to take advantage of the “sharing economy” and potentially make money on their apartment.
“This well-supported home sharing program of Airbnb and Pillow can help our residents with economic empowerment and could further differentiate our properties,” Au said.
“Veritas strives to offer market-leading opportunities in some of the most character-rich, well-located apartments, which enhances our residents’ experience,” Au added. “This partnership also marks one of the more significant pursuits from our newly formed Veritas Innovations business unit that advises, invests in, and incubates synergistic real estate technology partners.”
