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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

#291

Post by newfoundglory »

cornholio wrote: post #242
vuln wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until the VC money runs out and the poor(er) have zero choice. Those people chose to give their money to Lyft / Uber instead of supporting their local public transit. Fast forward through Uber/Lyft's 'disruption' the local public transit shuts down due to lack of funds for maintenance, upgrades, etc. The public transportation ridership will be at an all time low, so it would be very hard to get tax payers to shoulder…

Uber has a low cost because it doesn't use monopoly power to gouge consumers like cities do when issuing medallions. So Uber's secret sauce is the fact that it breaks the law, not VC money. The medallion laws are unjust and should be broken, other laws like insurance, driver training and vehicle safety are not. This is what makes the debate so complex and passionate, with people taking one side or the other depending…

Uber loses money, so at most you could argue that it is law breaking AND VC money. And without a lot of numbers on the cost of medallions, etc in each city it operates, you're actually just asserting your belief, not making an argument.

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

#292

Post by jackvalentine »

Tushon wrote: post #268
Xylakant wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

are certain that the fine could be levied against the owner instead of the actual perpetrator?

If the ordinances don't account for the scenario, they could (and probably should) be updated to indicate that repeat offenses at a rental could lead to a fine to the owner, so that they have a compelling interest to ensure their neighbors have a good experience

I think you're on to something here! They could ensure their neighbours have a good experience by having something like a nightwatchman, and a front desk that people could go to for assistance!

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

#293

Post by nkkollaw »

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…

I agree with your point. I'd however like to add to this: "Users should think of themselves as a respectful guest, not an entitled customer".

Lots of landlords that rent places for a living started using AirBnB. I specially experienced this in Poland, where I often had to go to a company-owned building to pick up the keys. There they had an office, reception, etc.

It didn't feel any different from a hotel. One time we complained about an apartment, and they gave us another one that was empty.

So, my point is that the host often sets the mood. If it's a hotel-like structure that even has self check-in, with a company that uses its own website, Booking, AirBnb and whatever else is around to rent rooms, you feel like an entitled customer. If an old woman opens the door to the guest house, you feel like a guest in her house.

I guess AirBnB departed from their original vision of having people sleep in your living room on an air mattress, and it's now used by hospitality companies as another channel to get customers. When that is the case, you definitely feel like acting as a guest at a hotel, since that's what it is although booked via AirBnB.

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

#294

Post by anoncoward111 »

It sounds like the real problem is that dense apartment-style housing can lead to conflicts between neighbors.

If every single person had a cheap plot of land and a cheap house on it, then loud neighbors wouldnt be as much of a problem.

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

#295

Post by llcoolv »

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…

Exactly. You could see how many air-bnb flats are in total in a given city on their website and a lot of citiies produce statistics on that. For example in Vienna, the municipality claimed that 3000 air b'n'b bedrooms in a city with millions of bedrooms -roughly 1 ‰ had caused the rents to increase with tens of percent.

Sorry, but people who believe that 1 promile decrease in supply could cause tens of percent increase in prices are just dumb beyond salvation.

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

#296

Post by wool_gather »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #257
xapata wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not true. I've stayed in several places where an extra county-specific tax is imposed via AirBnB. There may be some places which haven't yet arranged for AirBnB to pay the tax, but it isn't because AirBnB refuses. In fact, it may be because hotels in that area are still holding out for the possibility of banning AirBnB. When AirBnB starts paying hotel taxes, it becomes nearly impossible to remove.

Venice, mentioned elsewhere in this thread as a problem city because of AirBnB, levies this tax against people who visit and stay in AirBnB

This is interesting. How is it enforced and collected?

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

#297

Post by fjsolwmv »

soperj wrote: post #251
jessaustin wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This really depends on the family. I had 3 siblings and we traveled a lot. When we no longer all fit on the same bed, I got a folded-up blanket on the floor. Eventually my sister decided she would rather have the floor. My brothers are awful to sleep with...

They normally force you to buy 2 rooms now, that didn't used to be the case.

Normally where? I've never had a problem getting 5 to a room with a small fee and an extra cot provided.

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

#298

Post by fjsolwmv »

danudey wrote: post #192
pc86 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the most obvious of which is "build more [high-density] housing."

Build more high-density or mid-density rental housing. In Vancouver, condo towers are coming up like weeds, but it's not reducing the cost of living for anyone. People who already have money buy those condos, they rent them out at high prices so they can pay their mortgage, people have to rent them because there's nowhere else because literally no one is building rental housing, and so rents go up. Rents go up, so pr…

That can't go on forever. At some point demand is saturated. Speculation is fine, as long as vacancies are well taxed.

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

#299

Post by fjsolwmv »

jessaustin wrote: post #232
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 civili…

"hillbilly" has nothing to do with this. People from all "walk of life" are trashy travelers.

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

#300

Post by fjsolwmv »

greggman wrote: post #219

What's frustrating with AirBnB in Japan is AirBnB lets them lie about how many bedrooms they actually have. The excuse usually given is that Japanese count rooms differently but that is 100% provably false. As someone that's lived here 12 of the last 20 years you can see it's provably false by visiting any Japanese realtor or apartment listing site where there is zero ambiguity about the difference between 1 bedroom,…

AirBnB was founded on TOS violating abusing Craiglist users with spam. Integrity is not how you growth hack a unicorn startup.
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