Airbnb will be the Tokyo 2020 Official Partner

The popular online marketplace for arranging or offering lodging Airbnb will be the Official Partner for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, signing a nine-year sponsorship deal. The partnership with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would cover five Olympics and Paralympics over the next nine years: alongside next year's Tokyo Olympic games this agreement includes the Beijing 2022, Paris 2024, Milan 2026 and LA 2028 winter and summer games. The details of the partnership were not yet known, but according to the Financial Times the deal was set at $500 million. But it's not the first time for a collaboration between Airbnb and the Olympics: Airbnb has previously supported the Olympic Games Rio 2016 and Olympic Winter Games Pyeongchang 2018 as a domestic sponsor.

IOC President Thomas Bach said that the partnership would not replace the Olympic village, but it would provide the accommodation for visitors, families of athletes, and officials, reducing the need for host cities to unsustainably invest in new hotels. The agreement was announced in London, where Bach explained the reasons of the partnership: "One of the goals of our agenda is to make the Olympic Games more feasible and more sustainable. This collaboration will greatly help, because it will provide accommodation that will reduce the costs for the Olympic Games organisers". This agreement is probably linked to the locals protests at the last summer games in Rio de Janeiro because of the cost of hosting the event. 

Despite the costs and the sustainably, the collaboration between the IOC and Airbnb casued some protests among the officials of the host cities. The Paris major Anne Hidalgo blamed Airbnb for causing a shortage of long-term rental property in the city, pushing up rents and forcing the middle class out. In a letter sent to Thomas Bach Hidalgo said that “by removing a significant number of lodgings from Paris, Airbnb contributes to rising rents and worsens the shortage of apartments on the rental market, at a cost for all Parisians, destabilising local businesses and competing harshly with traditional hotels”.