Nearly 80% of Japan’s Airbnbs removed in response to new home-share law • Hacker News Board

Re: Nearly 80% of Japan’s Airbnbs removed in response to new home-share law

#121

Post by icebraining » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 4:06 PM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #114

icebraining wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should hope so, since I'm one. We own two apartments which we rent out, one of them on AirBnB, and handling the reservations, receiving the guests, giving them tips on how to navigate the city, constantly cleaning and replacing linen, etc, is way more time consuming than the occasional maintenance we do on the other apt, which is rented long-term. Why? What am I missing?

Hm, I guess your AirBNB is pretty nice, and our building is pretty shitty - we've had to have our building's super come in at least once a month to fix this or that - pipe making awful racket, door doesn't close or latch, lock needs to be replaced, neighbors making too much noise (although sadly, that problem wasn't fixed by the super with a wrench.)

No, our building isn't that great, it's pretty old and rickety. But most AirBNB reservations are just for a few days, so during the high season we might have to come in 4-5 times a month to do all that crap I mentioned before.

Re: Nearly 80% of Japan’s Airbnbs removed in response to new home-share law

#122

Post by Xylakant » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 4:06 PM UTC

Anderkent wrote: post #111

Xylakant wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had an illegal AirBNB in our building in Berlin. Some guests were ill-behaved and partied all night. The person renting the flat was unavailable. You had no recourse short of calling the police. I’d be very much fine with a hotel or an old-fashioned BnB in the building where staff or a responsible person is available to take care of and discipline misbehaving guests. You can call that NIMBYism, but yeah, no unregu…

So why not call the police?

It’s heavy handed and a hassle. And I shouldn’t have to deal with it. Simple as that. I’m also in the privileged position that I could, but for other people calling the police bears a significant risk of ending up on the receiving end of the police interaction.

So, the onus of proactively dealing with this is on the person renting the flat to guests. And AirBnB fails miserably at that.

Re: Nearly 80% of Japan’s Airbnbs removed in response to new home-share law

#123

Post by Fede_V » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 4:10 PM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #115

Fede_V wrote: post #102

I think this is an interesting and unintended consequence of AirBnB not investing nearly on filtering their users. AirBnB obviously was interested in getting their product used by as many people as people (growth at all costs) - but this had the effect of getting a lot of young, cost conscious people to take holidays in area that were traditionally residential. While most AirBnB renters are polite and respectful, eno…

No, sorry. AirBnB is creating immense problems in tourist destinations, to the point where people in major cities in Greece (and other countries) are having trouble finding affordable permanent housing. Barcelona and Rome are overrun with tourists, and it's killing the cities. AirBnB should just go away, the market worked very well before it, even if things were a bit more expensive.

I can't wrap my mind around people that think that 'too many tourists' or 'too many jobs' are a problem. Those are 'problems' that most cities in the world would kill for: if we consider them problems it's because we are not nearly creative enough to take advantage of them.

As a simple example: if we have too many tourists, give a progressive daily tax that's charged to every visitor that automatically includes museum visits/etc. Use that revenue to build more housing for local residents (and if some dipshit points out that more housing ruins a neighboorhood's character, ask yourself if Paris or suburbia has more character) or to subsidize local transport infrastructure.

Re: Nearly 80% of Japan’s Airbnbs removed in response to new home-share law

#124

Post by robertAngst » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 4:11 PM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #115

Fede_V wrote: post #102

I think this is an interesting and unintended consequence of AirBnB not investing nearly on filtering their users. AirBnB obviously was interested in getting their product used by as many people as people (growth at all costs) - but this had the effect of getting a lot of young, cost conscious people to take holidays in area that were traditionally residential. While most AirBnB renters are polite and respectful, eno…

No, sorry. AirBnB is creating immense problems in tourist destinations, to the point where people in major cities in Greece (and other countries) are having trouble finding affordable permanent housing. Barcelona and Rome are overrun with tourists, and it's killing the cities. AirBnB should just go away, the market worked very well before it, even if things were a bit more expensive.

This sounds like those cities do not have an educated/skilled workforce.

Sure there are spots near the Roman forum you would expect to have lots of tourists(basically inside the Aurellian walls).

But outside of that its a 20+ minute drive for a tourist to popular areas. If a 50$ airbnb is beating out a $1,000/mo rent its because people cannot afford $1000 in rent.

We host an airbnb ourselves, lots of business travelers in our area.

If people are coming to visit what humans did 2000 years ago and not visiting the humans there today, I dont think the problem is Airbnb.

Re: Nearly 80% of Japan’s Airbnbs removed in response to new home-share law

#125

Post by dahdum » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 4:11 PM UTC

gkanai wrote: post #105

repomies6999 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, I used uber in japan when I was traveling there and it worked quite well. What kind of problems were they having?

Uber has not been successful in Japan for many reasons. 1) the public transportation system is excellent. 2) the taxis are ubiquitous in the major metro areas. 3) the taxi companies have worked together to compete against Uber Japan successfully (Japan Taxi app, etc.)

Taxis in Japan had already solved the problems that pushed me towards Uber/Lyft in the first place. Credit card readers work properly, virtually every payment method is accepted, the drivers use GPS, availability was good (for my use case), and they are polite.

It's hard to get public support of law breaking when your solution is just incrementally better than the existing system.

Re: Nearly 80% of Japan’s Airbnbs removed in response to new home-share law

#126

Post by Sangermaine » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 4:13 PM UTC

iandanforth wrote: post #86

tnolet wrote: post #64

In Amsterdam they already set the limit of allowed rental days per year to 30. Just last month the new city council announced they will completely forbid AirBnB in certain neighbourhoods. As someone who studied and worked most of his life in Amsterdam I welcome these measures a lot.

Nimbyism at its best.

You don't understand what NIMBY means, then.

Re: Nearly 80% of Japan’s Airbnbs removed in response to new home-share law

#127

Post by Thriptic » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 4:15 PM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #115

Fede_V wrote: post #102

I think this is an interesting and unintended consequence of AirBnB not investing nearly on filtering their users. AirBnB obviously was interested in getting their product used by as many people as people (growth at all costs) - but this had the effect of getting a lot of young, cost conscious people to take holidays in area that were traditionally residential. While most AirBnB renters are polite and respectful, eno…

No, sorry. AirBnB is creating immense problems in tourist destinations, to the point where people in major cities in Greece (and other countries) are having trouble finding affordable permanent housing. Barcelona and Rome are overrun with tourists, and it's killing the cities. AirBnB should just go away, the market worked very well before it, even if things were a bit more expensive.

I can't speak to this problem in tourist destinations or Europe generally as I don't have enough data to have an opinion, but I frequently see Airbnb blamed for high housing costs in some American cities and it strikes me as being a bunch of bullshit. Sure Airbnb doesn't help the rental problem and it is a contributor to rising rents, but the primary problem isn't Airbnb, it's lack of supply of high density apartment living options. Many US cities are composed primarily of 2-3 story houses which have been converted into dingy expensive apartments. This is utterly unacceptable from an efficiency standpoint. Many of these units need to be bulldozed and replaced with high rise apartments if cities are to become affordable again.

Re: Nearly 80% of Japan’s Airbnbs removed in response to new home-share law

#128

Post by Sangermaine » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 4:16 PM UTC

Fede_V wrote: post #123

StavrosK wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, sorry. AirBnB is creating immense problems in tourist destinations, to the point where people in major cities in Greece (and other countries) are having trouble finding affordable permanent housing. Barcelona and Rome are overrun with tourists, and it's killing the cities. AirBnB should just go away, the market worked very well before it, even if things were a bit more expensive.

I can't wrap my mind around people that think that 'too many tourists' or 'too many jobs' are a problem. Those are 'problems' that most cities in the world would kill for: if we consider them problems it's because we are not nearly creative enough to take advantage of them. As a simple example: if we have too many tourists, give a progressive daily tax that's charged to every visitor that automatically includes museu…

>I can't wrap my mind around people that think that 'too many tourists' or 'too many jobs' are a problem.

Step outside of theoretical economic thought experiments and try living in a formerly quiet neighborhood or building suddenly experiencing an influx of loud drunk littering assholes. Residential areas are desired as residential areas for a reason. I live in NYC and sure as hell don't want to live around Times Square. There are actual people living in these cities who want a decent quality of life where they live.

Echoing many others in the this thread, in a previous apartment in a residential area of Manhattan someone down the hall starting renting their unit to Airbnb visitors. It was a nightmare, but thankfully the landlord caught wind in a few weeks and kicked the person out.

Re: Nearly 80% of Japan’s Airbnbs removed in response to new home-share law

#129

Post by pjc50 » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 4:18 PM UTC

Fede_V wrote: post #123

StavrosK wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, sorry. AirBnB is creating immense problems in tourist destinations, to the point where people in major cities in Greece (and other countries) are having trouble finding affordable permanent housing. Barcelona and Rome are overrun with tourists, and it's killing the cities. AirBnB should just go away, the market worked very well before it, even if things were a bit more expensive.

I can't wrap my mind around people that think that 'too many tourists' or 'too many jobs' are a problem. Those are 'problems' that most cities in the world would kill for: if we consider them problems it's because we are not nearly creative enough to take advantage of them. As a simple example: if we have too many tourists, give a progressive daily tax that's charged to every visitor that automatically includes museu…

> a progressive daily tax that's charged to every visitor

Lots of places already have this as a "hotel tax" .. which AirBnb doesn't pay.

Re: Nearly 80% of Japan’s Airbnbs removed in response to new home-share law

#130

Post by w0m » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 4:18 PM UTC

9387367 wrote: post #39

pjc50 wrote: post #16

Similar discussions are ongoing in lots of cities. In Edinburgh they're trying to pre-empt this a bit with voluntary restrictions: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-4... AirBnb creates "bad neighbours" by putting lots of tourists, some of whom behave badly, in formerly residential locations. It creates a whole new set of absentee landlords. If it were restricted to renting out places where th…

I live in London and a couple of years ago several of my neighbours had their flats on Airbnb, then my upstairs neighbour got married, moved out and had his flat on Airbnb, that was a massive burden on us as we suddenly went from one quiet neighbour from never knowing who was going to be living there to lots and lots of noise and weekend afterparties, luckily our council took action but only after my next door neighb…

That's an argument against gentrification in general; not AirBnB. An area progressing is a good thing, but there are pointy edges to it and local residents not keeping up with the local market is one of the thornier ones.