Airbnb: We Generate $4.5 Billion Globally for Local Restaurants

On a typical weekend evening, the wait for a table at Saraghina in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood is at least an hour. The Neopolitan-styled pizza place, behind an unassuming black wood corner storefront, specializes in pies such as prosciutto and sautéed mushroom, and Salsiccia, topped with housemade pork sausage. The crowd outside reflects the increasingly gentrified area, with a mix of long-time residents as well as a younger crew who are newer to the neighborhood. Take a second look, and you’ll spot yet another group in the mix as well, one that represents another increasingly prominent aspect of the area: a steady stream of foreign tourists, guidebooks in hand, awaiting their pizza. Many are guests from the neighborhood’s numerous Airbnbs, and Saraghina is high on their to-do list.

Pizza lovers will occasionally travel from other parts of city to eat at Saraghina. It’s been reviewed in the New York Times and occasionally shows up on a long list of destination pizza spots around town. But by and large Saraghina is the definition of a neighborhood spot; the majority of its business comes from people who haven’t traveled far to get there, at least that day.