HOSPITALITY: Sydney's hottest tourist destinations for Airbnb guests are Bondi, Darlinghurst and Surry Hills, with the online website foreshadowing it will double its share of the nation's accommodation sector to 4 per cent this year. 
Airbnb Australia and New Zealand country manager Sam McDonagh said Australia had 240 million accommodation nights a year and the corridor between the Sydney CBD and Bondi Beach was very popular with Airbnb hosts and guests.
"Australia is the most penetrated market in the world," said Mr McDonagh, releasing the latest data on Airbnb this week. While Paris is the biggest city globally for Airbnb hosts with more than 70,000 residential listings, Australia had 70,000 listings with Sydney accounting for 18,000 of them.
The harbour city had 262,000 total inbound guests in the past year, an increase of 106 per cent year on year.
"The fastest growing part of the business is Australians staying at Airbnbs," Mr McDonagh said.
The average Sydney Airbnb host is 43 years old, 59 per cent are female and the average host intake is $5400 a year.
Mr McDonagh said 52 per cent of Airbnb accommodation users in Sydney were Australians, 20 per cent were from Europe, 11 per cent from the US and 13 per cent from Asia. Less than 1 per cent were from Latin America and Africa, with New Year's Eve, the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, and NRL grand final the busiest time of the year for Airbnb hosts.
Corporate travellers make up 10 per cent of the Airbnb Australian business. Companies such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs now use Airbnb to accommodate executives.
"Corporate travellers stay an average six days in Airbnb accommodation, longer than the average leisure guest," Mr McDonagh said. "People combine a corporate stay with a few leisure days; it makes them feel like they belong." Overnight in the US the share accommodation giant launched a website to allow neighbours to register any concerns they might have about Airbnb listings in their suburb.
The neighbours tool allows people to submit concerns without having their name disclosed to a host. Airbnb will then follow up the concern.
Mr McDonagh said that of the 41 million guests who stayed on Airbnb last year there were only 1010 cases of property damage over $1000 globally.
"While incidents are incredibly rare, we take them seriously when they do happen and move fast to deal with them."That's why this neighbourhood tool is important. It allows neighbours to flag concerns and for hosts to be able to respond to resolve things quickly."