Airbnb announced that its Mississippi host community earned a combined $10.6 million in supplemental income while welcoming approximately 89,000 guest arrivals to the state in 2018.

This comes as Mississippi residents increasingly embrace the platform as an opportunity to earn supplemental income and make ends meet.

There are now over 1,800 Mississippi hosts who share their homes via Airbnb, typically earning about $3,700 annually in supplemental income, according to a news release. 

Yet, statewide data indicates that Airbnb and its host community appear to be complementing, rather than competing with, the Mississippi hotel industry, the new release said. According to the most recent Visit Mississippi report, Mississippi hotels continue to experience increases in occupancy and demand, with 900 hotel rooms currently under construction throughout the state even as local hosts welcomed hundreds of thousands of guests. This suggests that Airbnb is opening up the state to a new slice of prospective tourists by catering to travelers less able to afford hotels, those who desire to stay in neighborhoods or cities that lack hotels, and families who prefer to be together under one roof.

The home sharing community provides significant value through expanded lodging capacity for Mississippi communities when hotels sell out during big events. These include Oxford and Starkville during college football weekends, as well as Jackson during legislative session.

In addition to the new income going into the pockets of Mississippi homeowners, the state is generating new revenue through a tax agreement between Airbnb and the Mississippi Department of Revenue that allows the company to collect the state sales tax and local tourism taxes on behalf of its local hosts and remit the revenue directly to the state. Airbnb recently announced that it delivered $1 million tax revenue to the state in the first year of their agreement, outpacing the original projection of $245,000.