Side Note

Airbnb is partnering with landlords to convert apartment buildings into hotels

Landlords tend to get upset when their tenants illegally sublet their apartments on Airbnb. But now they’re getting in on the action, according to a new report by Bloomberg. People living at the Domain apartments in Kissimmee, Florida — the town where Disney World is located — will soon be able to rent their apartments out on Airbnb for up to 180 days a year, as long as they give their management company a cut of the profits.

This venture is the product of a new partnership between Airbnb and the Miami-based Newgard Development Group, which received a $200 million investment from the development firm Brookfield Property Partners last year, and is calling itself “Niido Powered by Airbnb.” As Airbnb’s head of global policy and public affairs told The Mercury News last year, the aim is to help millennials who “struggle to afford the high cost of housing” by giving them the opportunity to briefly sublease their apartments. Naturally, some tenants have objected to their community opening up to tourists, and are saying they didn’t sign up to live in an Airbnb building when they moved in. Niido, for its part, is reportedly telling tenants who want to move out that they don’t have valid grounds to break their lease.

At least six more Niido complexes are slated for the state, as well as some in the southwest. All this, of course, may suggest a shift in Airbnb’s strategy: Going straight to landlords and management companies in addition to working with homeowners and tenants. Maybe someday soon, you’ll wake up to find out you are living in a mini-hotel too.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Niido Powered by Airbnb as "Niido by Airbnb."