SACRAMENTO — Airbnb Inc. executives were all but crowing Wednesday, portraying the election night defeat of San Francisco’s Measure F as the birth of “a movement” to thwart efforts to regulate short-term rentals elsewhere.
Chris Lehane, the former Democratic strategist who now serves as Airbnb’s global policy chief, told reporters that the company will launch 100 “home-sharing clubs” worldwide through 2016 so that clients—both property hosts and renters—can share ideas and “advocate for their interests.” He credited the 138,000 Airbnb members in San Francisco with forming a potent political bloc that doomed Measure F.
