Airbnb dominated by professional landlords • Hacker News Board

Re: Airbnb dominated by professional landlords

#281

Post by tedmiston » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 9:37 PM UTC

tootie wrote: post #62

thisisit wrote: post #3

Is this surprising at all? Most "sharing" apps are now overrun by professionals in their field. The apps help the professional (or company) achieve zero cost customer acquisition cost. In case the apps do catch up, these guys end up being "promoted" because they are a good fit. The pros make for much better "sales target" for these sharing apps.

Uber started out as ride sharing, now it's an international taxi service.

Say what you will about Uber (I use Lyft more personally), but UberEATS is incredible.

They took on the messy pricing models (delivery fee + delivery minimum + tip + convenience fee, etc) that the other food delivery apps use and made it a clean and simple $5 flat rate with realtime tracking. If it arrives later than the guaranteed time they give a credit. With this side business alone, they've made a 3-5x improvement in the overall food delivery experience. I think it's one app where we can't give Uber enough credit.

Re: Airbnb dominated by professional landlords

#282

Post by RodericDay » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 9:40 PM UTC

user5994461 wrote: post #195

smsm42 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember NY housing prices were not so friendly way before Airbnb. In fact, a number of sitcoms set in New York feature the topic prominently. Is there any data that Airbnb made the problem substantially worse?

Housing is a disaster in every major city and price have been going up almost 10% a year for a while. AirBnb hardly has any influence on that.

Montreal is amazing, actually.

Thanks, universally-slandered rent-control! Living in this city makes me realize how cargo-culty a lot of HN economics is.

Re: Airbnb dominated by professional landlords

#283

Post by IanDrake » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 9:44 PM UTC

Sir_Substance wrote: post #219

IanDrake wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they have a public rating to maintain on airbnb. Evictions are actually easy to hide, just move to a different state or keep looking for the next sucker on CL that is a newbie landlord.

>Evictions are actually easy to hide, just move to a different state or That depends __entirely__ on where you live. In Iceland, your renting a building is registered with your kennitala (national identification number). Get evicted or damage the property, and all the real estate managers in the country know.

For the 336k people who live there I'm sure what you say is true.

It's different for the 300+ million of us that live in the US (where this forum is based thus my reasonable presumption that we're not generally conversing about a small isolated island nation).

Re: Airbnb dominated by professional landlords

#284

Post by tedmiston » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 9:49 PM UTC

andr wrote: post #31

If AirBnB gave me the option to filter actual lived-in apartments, as opposed to professional operations, I would definitely prioritize those. I miss the original feeling of booking someone's actual apartment, sharing their history, books, way of life, even weird knock-knacks. IKEA catalog living rooms get old quickly.

I really like this aspect too. Even just flipping through the host's collection of books to learn a little more about their perspective on the world.

I've even had some hosts say help yourself to what's in the fridge. I usually don't, as that still feels a little weird to me, but generally it's really interesting to get to see how someone else that you don't really know lives.

Re: Airbnb dominated by professional landlords

#285

Post by IanDrake » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 9:52 PM UTC

Jasper_ wrote: post #173

IanDrake wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds terrible, but would it be less terrible if your loud and obnoxious neighbors were long term renters? My vacation rentals have rules, especially about noise. If you break the rules I can literally force you to leave right then, as in, collect your stuff and go right now. You have no recourse. The police will help me toss you if you don't go willingly. If I rented to you long term, I don't have that luxury.…

But as a host, you want the 5 star rating for fear of being delisted. If you throw someone out, goodbye to your lucrative vacation rental. Noise complaints from other tenants often fall on deaf ears.

As I said elsewhere, I wouldn't hesitate. I screen visitors well and I get 5 star reviews.

Any one star reviews can be explained away easily. I've never had to do it as a host, but I've stayed at places with some one star reviews where the host provided a reasonable explanation in response.

Re: Airbnb dominated by professional landlords

#286

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 10:02 PM UTC

jgalt212 wrote: post #263

legulere wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that there are already regulations, but AirBnBs are skirting them.

Right and Obama's DOJ doesn't prosecute racketeers, they promote them. WHITE HOUSE APPOINTS BRIAN CHESKY AS PRESIDENTIAL AMBASSADOR FOR GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP http://blog.atairbnb.com/white-house-appoints-ceo-brian-ches...

[deleted]

Re: Airbnb dominated by professional landlords

#287

Post by Rjevski » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 10:22 PM UTC

Frondo wrote: post #73

cjalmeida wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How's that different than what's being going on NYC for the past 30 years or so? Gentrification is a thing, Airbnb or not.

These apps and startups and technology in general can certainly accelerate the shift from one status quo to a new one; AirBNB and Uber have disrupted hotel and taxi industries, certainly. The question we should be asking, as a society, is the new status quo one we want? Is it making life better overall? Or is it one that only a few of us want, because they're getting rich while the rest of us are getting more hard do…

It's definitely better for me at least. I can pretty much go live anywhere in the world and arrange accommodation in a few clicks - what's not to like?

Re: Airbnb dominated by professional landlords

#288

Post by Rjevski » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 10:26 PM UTC

x220 wrote: post #105

tootie wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber started out as ride sharing, now it's an international taxi service.

And an international regulation avoidance service.

Which I couldn't care less about as long as they improve my daily life. I can book and pay an Uber in two clicks and it arrives on time. Why should I care about an idiot politician not getting their pockets filled because Uber aren't complying with regulations forcing them to fill his pockets?

Re: Airbnb dominated by professional landlords

#289

Post by ricardobeat » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 10:27 PM UTC

amarkov wrote: post #127

ricardobeat wrote: post #27

'Our members own seven apartments on average, they are not big companies' Amazing how people live in distorted realities. To the vast majority of the population, owning seven apartments definitely puts you into 'big company' territory. Plus not being 'big' doesn't mean you get any exemptions.

If you own seven apartments with an average rent of $1k, your yearly revenue (not profit!) is $84,000. That's microscopic by any reasonable standard of company size.

Vacation rentals earn a multiple of long-term rental rates. AirBnB average in NYC is reported to be ~5500/month, so 462k/year for seven properties.

Re: Airbnb dominated by professional landlords

#290

Post by ricardobeat » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 10:33 PM UTC

chris_va wrote: post #33

ricardobeat wrote: post #27

'Our members own seven apartments on average, they are not big companies' Amazing how people live in distorted realities. To the vast majority of the population, owning seven apartments definitely puts you into 'big company' territory. Plus not being 'big' doesn't mean you get any exemptions.

That's more small business category. With a business plan and stable income, getting a small business loan isn't hard. In this case, there is an asset value risk, but that doesn't mean this is large company territory...

Of course it's small business - the point is there is little distinction between this guy and Accor for most people, they are both corporations and not someone renting out their holiday home anymore.