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What Airbnb really does to a neighbourhood

bbc.co.uk

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Re: What Airbnb really does to a neighbourhood

#61

Post by danharaj »

matwood wrote: post #38
danharaj wrote: post #6

To put it bluntly, I don't like competing with the entire rest of the world for housing in my city, and I'm pretty sure most other people don't either.

> my city Your city? Interesting way to frame it. Maybe you were born where you currently live or maybe you moved there last year. Either way it doesn't really matter. Why do you feel the need to keep other people out of the city you currently live? The reasons that you live where you live are the same reasons other people want to live and visit. Why deny someone that ability to move or visit only because you got the…

Because I weigh my need to have a home higher than someone else's desire to be a tourist. I don't want my entire life subjugated to international market forces. Shocking doctrine, I'm sure.

Re: What Airbnb really does to a neighbourhood

#62

Post by burlesona »

cortesoft wrote: post #46
burlesona wrote: post #25

How have we gotten this far into the comments without anyone mentioning the root cause here is a general shortage of housing in places people want to live / work / visit? It seems to me that AirBNB isn't to blame for the overall lack of housing (and temporary housing aka hostel/hotel) options, rather it's just the most visible brand name competing for the limited supply. Cities can ban it if they want, but I'd rather…

Wait, how would this solve ANY of the problems mentioned in the article? Most of the issues they talked about were simply caused by having a bunch of tourists living with the people (in fact, 'over tourism' was one of the mentioned problems, along with harassment and loudness from guests). Building more places for these tourists to stay isn't going to solve the problem of having too many tourists in a city.

My impression reading the article was that the primary problem is affordability and AirBNB units competing for housing space. The remainder, about the problems of tourism in general, seem like a pro/con situation that has always been an issue in popular tourist destinations, and AirBNB is just the latest highly visible participant in it. It seems likely that AirBNB has helped make tourism more popular, but that trend was already going strong before AirBNB and probably would be without it as well.

Re: What Airbnb really does to a neighbourhood

#63

Post by eerwrq »

jonny_eh wrote: post #40
eerwrq wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cities can ban it if they want, but I'd rather they focused on allowing more housing to be built. Why not do both?

One is mostly helpful (building housing) and one is mostly detrimental (banning airbnb).

How is banning AirBnB detrimental to the housing problem if it's also contributing to the lack of housing supply?

Re: What Airbnb really does to a neighbourhood

#64

Post by eerwrq »

mcjiggerlog wrote: post #36

I live next door to an AirBnB, in a building where maybe 1/5 of the flats have been converted to tourist flats. When I moved in 3 years ago there were zero. I'm woken up by screaming drunk tourists as they come home at 3am on a Tuesday night. There are constantly people clattering suitcases up the stairs at all hours. People smoke inside the common areas instead of on the street. Of course, just generally feeling lik…

I, too, love externalities when other's bear the cost, and hate them when I bear the cost.

Re: What Airbnb really does to a neighbourhood

#65

Post by MrEfficiency »

mazatta wrote: post #4

Airbnb is a zero sum game - what tourists win, locals lose. Two of my coworkers are currently being forced to look for a new place to live in a tight housing market because their current landlord can make more money renting on Airbnb. I've stayed in Airbnbs in the past (and appreciated the convenience), but I no longer will.

>Two of my coworkers are currently being forced to look for a new place to live in a tight housing market because their current landlord can make more money renting on Airbnb

Isnt this economics? Travelers are moving money to your location. Your coworkers wont pay the increased rate, but travelers will.

Why are travelers looked down upon? New ideas, patronage in the city, and creating relations around the world.

Re: What Airbnb really does to a neighbourhood

#66

Post by eerwrq »

danharaj wrote: post #35
eerwrq wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok. So does that change the argument in any way? Or are you just being pedantic. [edit: yeah i'm being dumb. i felt the discussion was being derailed, but thats no reason to yell at strangers on the internet.]

Friend, why are you being so combative?

Maybe I'm just in a bad mood. I'm sorry for being a jerk today.

Re: What Airbnb really does to a neighbourhood

#67

Post by nix0n »

ritchiea wrote: post #58
burlesona wrote: post #25

How have we gotten this far into the comments without anyone mentioning the root cause here is a general shortage of housing in places people want to live / work / visit? It seems to me that AirBNB isn't to blame for the overall lack of housing (and temporary housing aka hostel/hotel) options, rather it's just the most visible brand name competing for the limited supply. Cities can ban it if they want, but I'd rather…

It's not just a lack of housing. Airbnb is changing neighborhoods by creating increased demand for vacation friendly activities and turning some areas into an effective full time weekend. It's taking popular neighborhoods like the Mission in SF or Williamsburg in Brooklyn or the Gothic quarter in Barcelona and turning them into 365 day a year tourist parties. Any neighborhood with a reputation for being hip, having a…

> Any neighborhood with a reputation for being hip, having art, music, bars etc. is now half populated by Airbnb guests at all times

Why are there so few of these places?

Re: What Airbnb really does to a neighbourhood

#68

Post by parthdesai »

jseliger wrote: post #8
mazatta wrote: post #4

Airbnb is a zero sum game - what tourists win, locals lose. Two of my coworkers are currently being forced to look for a new place to live in a tight housing market because their current landlord can make more money renting on Airbnb. I've stayed in Airbnbs in the past (and appreciated the convenience), but I no longer will.

Airbnb is a zero sum game - what tourists win, locals lose. I think you mean that "zoning is a zero-sum game." Since the 1970s, when zoning became more severe and restrictive, housing costs have increased substantially: https://jakeseliger.com/2015/12/27/why-did-cities-freeze-in-... . We know how to create a positive-sum game: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-03-14/californi... , but we've made doing so i…

You do know that Airbnb exists outside of California as well right?

I live here in downtown TO, and while we have a shortage of condo's, our condo has quiet a lot of Airbnb units. 1) This reduces number of units available for rent in the market, thus driving the price of available units up. 2) Creates a fucking terrible living conditions for people who actually live in the building. There was a long weekend where Airbnb guests literally broke elevator button because they couldn't get to their floor without their fobs. They throw garbage in the lobby, are loud af till 3-4am.

Re: What Airbnb really does to a neighbourhood

#70

Post by deadmetheny »

matwood wrote: post #38
danharaj wrote: post #6

To put it bluntly, I don't like competing with the entire rest of the world for housing in my city, and I'm pretty sure most other people don't either.

> my city Your city? Interesting way to frame it. Maybe you were born where you currently live or maybe you moved there last year. Either way it doesn't really matter. Why do you feel the need to keep other people out of the city you currently live? The reasons that you live where you live are the same reasons other people want to live and visit. Why deny someone that ability to move or visit only because you got the…

Permanent long-time residents are what make a city what it is more often than not. Added to that, residents are contributing long-term to the local economy and paying taxes to a degree that temporary visitors are not.

On top of that: yes, his city. It's the problem with places like Hawaii where the locals who have been there for generations get told they have to eat shit because rich haoles can afford to buy up or rent all the land. I feel it's way less fair not to give preferential treatment to long-time multi-generational residents, just because a bunch of tech nerd mercenaries have no concept of laying down roots somewhere.

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