111–120 of 153 posts
Surely the projections cited in this article aren't accurate. > Already operating in 191 countries and 34,000 cities, analysts at financial services company Cowen & Co predict that, by 2020, Airbnb hosts will be taking 500 million bookings a night, rising to a staggering one billion by 2025. If the population of the world is about 8.2 billion in 2025, which is the UN's expectation [0], that'd mean one Airbnb booking…
> analysts at financial services company Cowen & Co predict that, by 2020, Airbnb hosts will be taking 500 million bookings a night, rising to a staggering one billion by 2025. In a world of 7-8 billion people (and where most people live with and travel with others, so there are many fewer households and travel groups), these numbers seem more than a little unlikely.
You're 100% correct that the size of the total world population makes it spectacularly unlikely that we'll ever have 500 million bookings per night.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
" In Barcelona tourism is about third of city's income, so protests like this are ridiculous. " I think that the debate in Barcelona (and other cities) is a little more sophisticate of what your are implying. There is a balance somewhere that cities have to find and this is what they are trying to do. Another consideration is that excessive tourism will kill what makes the city interesting.
I'm not trying to say it's simple issue. But if you hate tourists - don't invite them to take their money. If money of tourists are interesting - use police to control drunk tourists and don't call all tourists "pain". After 2 visits to Barcelona and about $15k spent there, I feel cheated if I was actually not welcomed there.
Also, tourists starting in AirBnB haven't been invited by the city -- they're outside the planned hotel capacity.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not trying to say it's simple issue. But if you hate tourists - don't invite them to take their money. If money of tourists are interesting - use police to control drunk tourists and don't call all tourists "pain". After 2 visits to Barcelona and about $15k spent there, I feel cheated if I was actually not welcomed there.
Being appreciated only for my money is most unwelcoming. Also, tourists starting in AirBnB haven't been invited by the city -- they're outside the planned hotel capacity.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you see this as something bad? Some people are willing to pay more than others for housing, so others have to move elsewhere; this is normal market at work, why would anyone want to stop it?
Because those willing to pay absurd prices are not locals, nor are they living here long-term, thus this causes locals and long-term residents to be pushed out of the city. Imagine being pushed out of your own city just because the market says tourists are more important than residents.
Also, residents are more "important" than tourists, that's what you're trying to say? Why the hell? What does "important" even mean?
I have not ever used Airbnb, never found difficulty in getting good hotel accommodations for reasonable prices, never found difficult being shown around the "non-touristy" parts of every place I've visited, either by just asking locals, getting advice from friends, using travel websites, etc., and have really, really valued the nicer accommodations in traditional hotels (especially the extra privacy, standardized cleanliness, and lower variance in terms of noise and sounds that reduce sleep quality).
I'm not being snarky or critical of Airbnb, many of my good friends love it and seem to get a lot of value out of it. But I cannot see any aspect of Airbnb that offers value to me or satisfies my search criteria when looking for housing.
Given this, it is almost bewildering to me that there is so much demand for Airbnb-provided short term lodging that landlords would even consider the idea that renting an apartment solely as an Airbnb rental is more profitable than traditional rental agreements.
I mean, I can't blame the landlords if that's the case. But I sure do feel like the mass of travelers who believe they are getting value from Airbnb simply cannot be correct in their belief that they are actually receiving that value. I just wonder why they think they are.
“If it becomes law, this legislation would threaten thousands of low- and middle-income New Yorkers with fines of up to $7,500 simply for listing that they would like to share their homes,” Airbnb fumed.
By "share", do they mean a quid pro quo exchange of goods and services for money?
It's nuts to call this "sharing", and I don't think this is quibbling about words when people at pro airbnb rallies chant "sharing is caring". Of course they're trying to grab the emotional connotations of "sharing" that exist outside the commerce world, which include friendship, generosity, and a wish to help others. I don't expect airbnb to stop this bit of manipulation, but I do think the mainstream media should certainly stop referring to the contract "you may stay in my house on the condition that you pay me the price I have specified" as "sharing". An argument by ambiguity uses the fact that words have more than one meaning, but honestly, I'm not sure how "sharing" even applies at all to such a clear cut unambiguous example of commerce.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivocation
There they go again, claiming that governments are regulating or fining "sharing". No, they are regulating commerce. They are threatening fines on businesses that fail to properly comply with regulations on commerce.
Airbnb's corporate-speak is pretty brazen.
Answer? Probably not. Especially if you don't provide housing stock numbers. The last AirBnB complaint I read was in Seattle which had a whopping 1000 units on the market. Which is jack shit. If you want top argue that AirBnB is a problem then you have to list the number of houses, apartments, hotel rooms, and AirBnB units. I'm not convinced it's s talk problem in any city in the world. Now regulations that inhibit n…
The bigger question is, why should I create new houses and apartments when I just can raise the rent? Right, no one would and no one will. Without the state intervening we will have a lot of new york cities around the globe.