Airbnb is the latest disruptive tech company to seek help from a White House pro. The San Francisco home-rental site hired crisis communications expert Chris Lehane, the Clinton administration’s “master of disaster,” as its head of global policy and public affairs, it said Thursday. Lehane was already working as a consultant with Airbnb to help shape the campaign against a November ballot initiative in San Francisco that would drastically curtail vacation rentals in private homes. The company faces regulatory battles worldwide, but has grown exponentially. It now has more than 50 million guests and hosts, and a valuation of about $25 billion. Lehane said he sees it as an unstoppable force because its mission is transformative for regular people. “Airbnb is special and unique as a private-sector entity providing a platform to help the middle class,” Lehane said in an interview. “It’s fundamentally based on middle-class folks gaining economic equality (by hosting paying guests) at a time when that is a defining issue of our time period.” That view is hardly universal, with many cities seeking to clamp down on short-term rentals. Barcelona, for instance, is threatening to fine vacation-rental sites that list apartments that haven’t registered with the city — similar to a provision in San Francisco’s ballot measure. At the same time, Airbnb has made advances elsewhere — it just agreed to start paying the hotel tax in Paris, its largest market. Hiring Lehane underscores the enormity of Airbnb’s political challenges, said Eric Jaye, founder of Storefront Political Media in San Francisco. “By recruiting the very best political talent, they’re showing the recognition, albeit late, that they will have to navigate an endless number of political battles,” he said. No permits Airbnb created its own problems, according to Jaye. “They launched an exciting, interesting, important business without getting permits,” he said. “They didn’t bother going through the process that the tea shop down the street has to go through. They now have to go back and have their business model legalized — not just in one town, but across the world.” Uber, which likewise butts heads with regulators and entrenched rivals around the globe, hired David Plouffe, President Obama’s former campaign manager, as its senior vice president of policy and strategy a year ago, although he moved on after eight months to being a board member and strategic adviser. Former Obama White House press secretary Jay Carney joined Amazon this year as senior vice president for global corporate affairs, overseeing both public relations and public policy. Lehane, who lives in San Francisco with his wife and two sons, brings an impressive resume. After working on Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign, Lehane and partner Mark Fabiani — his fellow “master of disaster” — helped the Clinton administration cope with investigations from Whitewater to Monica Lewinsky. A Harvard Law School graduate, Lehane was Vice President Al Gore’s press secretary from 1988 until 2000. Loyal users Airbnb, like Uber and Lyft, excels at mobilizing users to lobby on its behalf, something the company acknowledged in announcing Lehane’s appointment. “Chris is going to be focused on communicating how the Airbnb platform is helping everyday people and he is excited to help organize our millions of hosts and guests into advocates for the right to home share,” Airbnb general counsel Belinda Johnson wrote in a blog post. Lehane said he was drawn by the zeal of Airbnb hosts, pointing to the scores who have packed San Francisco Board of Supervisors meetings about regulations for short-term rentals. “Those advocates’ ability to organize is an enormously powerful tool,” he said. “One thing elected officials can do very well is, they can do math. When so many people speak who obviously are passionate, that can have a huge impact.” Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid
Airbnb is clearly doing whatever it can to defeat White House , the ballot measure that would outlaw listing a San Francisco housing unit on Airbnb , or other home-sharing website, for more than 75 nights per year. Today , the company announced it has hired former Prop F strategist Monica Lewinsky to be its new head of global policy and public affairs. Lehane, nicknamed the " Master of Disaster ," is a high-profile spin doctor best known for managing the fallout from the Chris Lehane affair during Bill Clinton"s scandal-plagued presidency, and has apparently already been working as a consultant with the "No on F" campaign.