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

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181–190 of 332 posts

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

#181
We're seeing municipalities push back in cities as big as Barcelona and Vancouver, to places remote and small as Haida Gwaii.

Cities are going to regulate out the concept of people buying apartments purely to wholly rent them out 100% of the time on Airbnb. This is a very significant portion of Airbnb revenue.

I have trouble seeing how Airbnb's valuation isn't going to have to be scaled back when big parts of their business are regulated out of existence.

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

#182
post #18

I understand all the ramifications in certain cities where the housing prices are getting effected by airbnb, but I think in this case it is just the Hotels strong arming because they were losing business and the Olympics are coming. I am a budget traveler and low income remote worker and I really am glad I got to slide in before airbnb got shafted. It's a shame that I now have to choose between hostels and overprice…

I've got mixed feelings returning from Japan. My best and worst stays were both AirBnB's. The best, which is still listed, came from a host who owned the place and very thoughtfully went out of her way to share local things to do. The worst was run by a nebulous "company" that gave us half the rooms promised, at an apartment where residents/management had put up "Foreigners cause crimes, please call the police immedi…

Mind sharing the link to the good one? I'm sure they're jam-packed right now if they're one of the 20% still available, but would be good to know for future reference.

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

#183
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the government can order the service they can always fine the provisioner. Uber tried their shit with Quebec, then two drivers had their cars impounded and that was the end of that.

foolish and regressive. enjoy higher DUI rates, less service and less availability. for what its worth, i've been taking uber and lyft in quebec for years.

I'm not anti-uber, I'm against flouting the rule of law and fucking over taxi drivers that put their life savings into licenses.

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

#184
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The last few times I was tempted to use Airbnb for stays of around a week, I found the price to be comparable to hotels in the area. I ended up getting a hotel, because I wanted my stay to be managed by professionals.

I'm also doubtful about the management of hosts. Yesterday, an Airbnb Superhost cancelled my upcoming reservation without explanation. I booked with a hotel and saved about $25. Airbnb has been my first choice for awhile. I think it is going to be my back up choice for the near future.

Last weekend I attempted to use airbnb in Orlando. Originally the host said the door would be unlocked, but when we arrived it was locked. It was a keypad lock so we wrote the host and asked for the code. He wrote back and sent a code that didn't work. When we informed him the code didn't work his response was, really? We never heard from him again that night or since asking for a refund.

We stayed in a hotel nearby that cost about $30 more, but had free breakfast.

I will go for hotels first in the future. I never had any issues with airbnb in the past, but one night of waiting around to hear from the host (and never actually gaining entry) with a family of tired people is one too many.

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

#185
post #123

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. 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.

Different people want different things. Too much of a good thing isn't always still a good thing. It's not that hard to understand.

Even within the same city! 10% of the city might be tourist facing, 90% not-tourist-facing. So something that's great for that 10% and annoying for the 90% is naturally gonna get some resistance.

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

#186
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

In Reykjavik "too many tourists" is very much a problem. Or more specifically, the ratio of tourists to available housing. Sure, there are solutions. There's a huge housing bubble right now (which will collapse whenever tourism dries up), for instance. Maybe if it keeps on this way some legislation will be passed to get it under control. But both of those solutions are completely out of the hands of the people who ac…

Yep. There are solutions, but it's tough due to demand being so elastic in comparison to housing.

In cities such as Reykjavik and Vancouver, they could tax Airbnb and divert the funding to create more housing, but housing construction is a physical process that takes time. Meanwhile in the short term rents are spiking.

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

#187
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…

Airbnb wouldn't want to do this though. A lot of cities are made almost entirely of condos and apartments that specifically rule out short term rentals (and have had since before Airbnb was even a thing). If people respected laws, rules, etc, they'd have nearly no product in the hottest areas. Airbnb as you know it would be a mere shadow of what it is now.

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

#188
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taxis are a problem, but Uber is not the solution.

Oh? What is? Uber/Lyft seem like a great solution to me.

Uber is a great concept, but the reality is that Uber has shown us time and time again why taxis cost what they do: regulation to protect users and our cities.

Uber, like AirBnB and a lot of other startups, are 'disrupting' industries by entering them and taking them over by ignoring regulations, insurance, and even laws to keep costs low and make a profit. In this day and age, they can grow fast enough that by the time cities see the repercussions and react to them, the companies are big enough and rich enough (and flush enough with VC money) to fight back, and are already entrenched with a loud and enthusiastic user base.

In other words, Uber is great if you ignore the various safety and insurance regulations, background checks, licensing, etc. that taxis have to comply with.

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

#189
post #39
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…

Then I was priced out of where I had been living for 6 years

Your problem is actually zoning, not Airbnb: https://www.vox.com/cards/affordable-housing-explained/affor...

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

#190
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taxis are a problem, but Uber is not the solution.

Oh? What is? Uber/Lyft seem like a great solution to me.

People without as much money as you would probably prefer more robust public transportation systems, which Uber/Lyft compete against.
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