Surprise! You Live In A Giant Airbnb

Residents were blindsided by the company’s first building-level conversion

- Olivia Zaleski

In December, Sheila Schuler and her husband, David, were ecstatic to rent a home at the Domain, a cluster of well-kept pastel apartments in Kissimmee, Fla. The gated community’s palm trees and crystalline, cabana-lined pool felt like an oasis next to the nearby chaos of Walt Disney World, where Sheila works. Three months after signing a yearlong lease, the Schulers discovered Airbnb Inc. had co-opted their slice of paradise and that they would have to share their refuge with a potentially huge rotating cast of new faces. This summer the Domain will become the online booking giant’s first branded apartment complex, renting to tourists for short stays much the same way a hotel does. “We’ve been blindsided,” says David, who found out about the change from the building’s unofficial Facebook page. “We didn’t agree to live in a hotel.”

It’s easy to see why vacationers headed for Kissimmee, which welcomes about 10 million visitors a year, would book the Domain. Along with Disney, the building is moments away from Universal Studios and Jimmy Buffett’s developing Margaritaville resort project, making it ideal for Airbnb’s grand hybrid experiment. But when that influx of tourists is happening next door, people tend to balk. The Schulers are among a dozen residents frustrated with the 324-unit complex, some of whom spoke to Bloomberg on condition of anonymity for fear building management would retaliate.