Airbnb, the world’s leading community driven hospitality company, announced that its Indiana host community earned a combined $36 million in supplemental income while welcoming approximately 322,000 guest arrivals to the state in 2018.

This comes as Indiana residents increasingly embrace the home sharing platform as an opportunity to earn supplemental income and make ends meet. There are now over 4,600 Indiana hosts who share their homes via Airbnb, typically earning about $4,80 annually in supplemental income.

Yet, statewide data indicates that Airbnb and its host community appear to be complementing — rather than competing with — the Indiana hotel industry. The most recent report from the Indiana Office of Tourism Development demonstrates that Indiana hotel occupancy rates and revenue have grown steadily 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 Indiana communities when hotels sell out during big events. These include Bloomington , South Bend and Tippecanoe County during events associated with the universities, Indianapolis during major conventions and festivals, and the lakefront communities during summer tourism season.

This economic impact comes on the heels of the Indiana State Legislature overwhelmingly passing a bill early in 2018 which protected the right to homeshare and set state standards for short-term rentals throughout Indiana. The bill has since been signed into law by Governor Holcomb.

What follows is an overview of 2018 guest arrivals and total host income, broken down by the top 20 counties.