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

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

#231

Post by mason55 »

alexgmcm wrote: post #161
robertAngst wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 travele…

I live in Barcelona where there is a big issue due to Airbnb. I moved here from the UK and I work in Data Science so I'm not like a janitor or something. The problem is that Airbnb will charge maybe 80-120 euros a night for an apartment depending on size, location etc. And I am paying 750 euros a month. So a landlord can make more money from a week of Airbnb than a month of normal rental. In the three years I have be…

> In the three years I have been here the rents have risen probably 15% or so - it means even with promotions and pay rises you just keep up.

Well, except you also have 15% more money after paying rent as well. If you save the same percentage of your overall income then your absolute savings went up 15%. And if you assume that all your other costs are not rising as quickly (maybe fair, maybe not) then you could save a higher percentage of your income because your salary grew faster than your costs as a whole.

It's the same argument why living in SF or NYC is worth it even with the high cost of housing.

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

#232

Post by jessaustin »

laurieg wrote: post #32

Good riddance. I live in rented accommodation in Japan. A couple of years ago an Airbnb was set up next door and it was a nightmare. People coming and going at all hours, large groups of drunk holiday-makers having loud parties into the night, drinking and smoking on the balcony. After multiple calls to the owner of the apartment and the police the situation was finally resolved. I definitely think Airbnb should have…

Part of hotels' professionalism is knowing how to deal with "hillbillies". Hillbillies are naturally attracted to cheap things and have no idea how to conduct themselves when they aren't in their own hometown, so they are a special problem with respect to Airbnb.

One might assume from my place of birth that I am a hillbilly, but decades of travel and living in various places domestically and abroad have mostly civilized me. I do occasionally have to correct myself however.

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

#233

Post by kinsomo »

DINKDINK wrote: post #213
kinsomo wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “The government knows how to segregate us properly” The government is great place to balance competing interests, especially if it's more democratic. > And “Everything will be cheaper by limiting people the ability to trade” That's missing the point. The goal with regulations like these isn't to make things "cheaper," but to control negative externalities. There's more to life than the price of goods. Unfortunately…

>The goal with regulations like these isn't to make things "cheaper," but to control negative externalities. Seeing as the proponents -- of regulations regarding who can trade what with whom -- first cited issue is "Affordability", categorically, yes, these regulations are about making things "cheaper". >The government is great place to balance competing interests, especially if it's more democratic. How successful h…

> Seeing as the proponents -- of regulations regarding who can trade what with whom -- first cited issue is "Affordability", categorically, yes, these regulations are about making things "cheaper".

> How successful has the US government been at balancing trillion dollar bailouts for the banking/political class and endless wars of murder? Building a system where the minutia of liberty can be taken away with a stroke of a pen unless millions of dollars are spent lobbying the political class is not what I'd call a "great place to balance competing interests".

It's not very promising to start a conversation by ignoring the actual circumstances under discussion, so you can get on your hobby-horse to rail against your favored straw men.

So, as a helpful reminder, we're talking about a specific set of Japanese regulations meant to help people who are annoyed because they never chose to live next to a hotel room. We're not talking about hotel costs and we're certainly not talking about US bank bailouts.

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

#234

Post by jessaustin »

krapp wrote: post #21
jorvi wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm European, and in general I like (well thought out) regulations, but in the case of the taxi industry Uber is actually not a bad guy but a huge blessing. In a lot of countries (80%+) taxi drivers are rude, try to price gouge, try to scam you or try to take longer routes. Uber takes all of this away. The rating system ensures drivers are polite. The estimate € (plus route tracking) ensures they don't take the sceni…

>In a lot of countries (80%+) taxi drivers are rude, try to price gouge, try to scam you or try to take longer routes. Made up percentages don't count as credible data, unless you can cite the objective and peer-reviewed analysis that demonstrates that over 80% of taxi drivers are "rude, try to price gouge, try to scam you or try to take longer routes," you're just trying to disguise your opinion as fact. Which is fi…

GP probably hasn't been to 80% of the nations in which taxis may be hired, but that would more charitably be considered extrapolation from experience rather than "imagination". If you haven't experienced poor taxi service, you might consider yourself lucky.

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

#235

Post by rsynnott »

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…

> AirBnB is already very strict with landlords

It's not at all strict with landlords. Requiring hotel/b&b zoning would be being strict with landlords, say, and that's what many countries and municipalities now do, but AirBnB seems to generally have little interest in helping to enforce that.

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

#236

Post by jessaustin »

EStudley wrote: post #13
jorvi wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm European, and in general I like (well thought out) regulations, but in the case of the taxi industry Uber is actually not a bad guy but a huge blessing. In a lot of countries (80%+) taxi drivers are rude, try to price gouge, try to scam you or try to take longer routes. Uber takes all of this away. The rating system ensures drivers are polite. The estimate € (plus route tracking) ensures they don't take the sceni…

>In a lot of countries (80%+) taxi drivers are rude, try to price gouge, try to scam you or try to take longer routes. I have had every experience you explained with Uber. People driving me weird ways around my city to make the trip longer, rude, attempting to add a cleaning charge with no reason, or the classic "Hey if you cancel the ride and give me $10 I can get you there."

...the classic "Hey if you cancel the ride and give me $10 I can get you there."

What's wrong with that? It's just an offer that you're free to reject.

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

#237

Post by undersuit »

Thriptic wrote: post #127
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 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…

> it's lack of supply of high density apartment living options.

Devil's Advocate: I'd agree that AirBnB isn't entirely to blame, but a large company helping your town's citizen rezone their long-term residential units into short-term residential units and not telling the town isn't going to help the zoning board make correct decisions.

Japan has made a good decision to at least butt themselves into the process.

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

#238

Post by kinsomo »

pjc50 wrote: post #230
DINKDINK wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>people find value in living in a city and neighborhood that isn't completely focused on extracting the maximum economic value at any cost. More power to them. But why should we use violence means against peaceful people?

What does violence have to do with any of this, unless some of the noise-related altercations are getting out of hand?

> What does violence have to do with any of this, unless some of the noise-related altercations are getting out of hand?

I think this guy is one of those hyper-libertarians who equates government regulation with violence.

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

#239

Post by Chaebixi »

samsonradu wrote: post #212
nacho2sweet wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being a tourist and tourism is a luxury. Having affordable housing is a right.

Not trying to be cocky, but why is affordable housing a right in a capitalist society? Genuinely curious.

> Not trying to be cocky, but why is affordable housing a right in a capitalist society? Genuinely curious.

Because, in the West at least, society isn't capitalist uber alles.

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

#240

Post by wallace_f »

gwbas1c wrote: post #52
wallace_f wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a valid concern. But seems to be something better handled by local ordinances and not the sort of thing a national government shoulf need to drop the hammer down on... In my opinion.

Japan is much smaller than the US or the EU. IMO, there are certain advantages to regulating things at a higher level. It's easier for AirBNB to comply with one set of rules instead of many. An individual in Japan can take advantage of a single, well-written how-to guide instead of learning his or her local laws. That being said, where I live, I made sure the HOA explicitly forbids AirBNB-style rentals.

Well if that's the only issue, that would be obviously easy to solve.

More clearly: I don't think you should make an app like this illegal. The burden should be on the property owners, not on AirBnB. Or why not?

What other problems exist?

In some supreme court cases, justices have argued 'while I do not agree that this should be legal, it should be up to the states to legislate, not the federal government.'

The two major advantages I see for local legislation is 1) more-representative and more-direct democracy, and 2) value in allowing experimentation and competition of policy legislation...

I'm not so much making this up as I go, but these kinds of ideas are things I've read in American political history, and when I thought about it, decided I agreed with. Here, it seems to me like an obvious candidate for such line of thought... But I could be wrong, maybe you can convince me otherwise?

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