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Airbnb’s ‘Guerrilla War’ Against Local Governments

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Re: Airbnb’s ‘Guerrilla War’ Against Local Governments

#211

Post by dragonwriter »

eropple wrote: post #126
dcosson wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, this just sounds to me like a pitch for AirBnB. They managed to solve this exact problem you're complaining about via the rating system and guests being attached to their real identity. The vast majority of AirBnB guests are very respectful and reasonable. As for your tight local control, fuck that. No, you shouldn't get to decide exactly what happens in your neighborhood just because you got there first. You…

I understand that there is this odd notion that every man is sui generis and all, but you live in a society. You can change the property under the purview of the association. It would be stupid to assert that you cannot. But you must win a vote to do so--and you agree to adhere to the results of association votes by buying into the property and into the association. Such positive tyranny one must endure. Makes my hea…

> I understand that there is this odd notion that every man is sui generis and all, but you live in a society.

I think you mean sui iuris (legally autonomous) not sui generis (a unique case).

Re: Airbnb’s ‘Guerrilla War’ Against Local Governments

#212

Post by CNJ7654 »

matchbok wrote: post #91
TheHypnotist wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a few mini-hotels - properties with more than one room. How many are corporate owned is undetermined. This guy is just bitter about something, perhaps rightfully so. Or maybe just vote manipulation.

Incorrect. Most of AirBnBs profit comes from units that do not have the owner present. Aka a hotel.

That is a pretty poor definition of hotel. Just because someone is renting out their second home/vacation home/in-law apartment/whatever doesn't mean they're corporately controlled. Many normal people in America own multiple pieces of property, especially in rural areas.

If we're only talking about cities, I totally agree though. I've stayed at a couple of apartments that were bought solely for airbnb use, and managed along a dozen other ones by the owner.

Re: Airbnb’s ‘Guerrilla War’ Against Local Governments

#213

Post by siruncledrew »

jseliger wrote: post #120
flexie wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are not many "corporate-owned mini-hotels" but there are certainly hundreds of thousands of people that buy one or more apartments with the purpose of renting them out through AirBnB (or not sell apartments that they would otherwise have gotten rid off). AirBnB doesn't make the little guy make a few extra bucks renting out a room as much as it makes those who already have money buy up studios and one bedroom ap…

AirBnB doesn't make the little guy make a few extra bucks renting out a room as much as it makes those who already have money buy up studios and one bedroom apartments. The effect is that such apartments get more expensive for those who just need a place to live. If only there were some way of increasing the number of housing units on a given area of land, this problem could be solved and we could have enough housing…

Increasing the number of housing units doesn't solve the problem though. What is to stop people with money from buying those up and then Airbnbing them out?

Those "landlords/property investors" have enough cashflow and collateral to continue to expand their portfolios and get lines of credit to do so, which puts 'normal people' looking for housing at a disadvantage.

In high-demand housing areas, there needs to be more housing regulation to balance the businesses vs. individuals. It's good that there are cool places that encourage visitors to temporarily stay and spend locally, but there are also people wanting to live there that would also spend locally. The property businesses are making such a $/day killing on Airbnbs that they would rather keep that system than rent units for people to live there (and have to adhere to all the landlord laws).

Airbnb is a convenient loophole that offers more money with less effort as long as demand is high.

Re: Airbnb’s ‘Guerrilla War’ Against Local Governments

#214

Post by duxup »

iandanforth wrote: post #58
duxup wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If it were easy to report abuses to Airbnb directly, or if local police were instructed to contact them, the platform could better regulate itself. I don't think Airbnb really cares to do that... and that kinda is where the problems start in terms of what Airbnb is really all about.

Hrm ... ok here's a specific change I'd like to see they have a "neighbors" portal. But if you try to input a complaint it's hard to find a listing nearby and they say "If you can’t find the listing’s web address, enter the street address and we’ll try to locate the listing. In order to protect our hosts’ privacy, we won’t be able to confirm the existence of any Airbnb listings or follow up with you." This supports y…

Kind of amusing they hide it that way, seems like a good way to get AROUND any local zoning or anyone to identify folks who are buying up units wholesale to rent them out.

Re: Airbnb’s ‘Guerrilla War’ Against Local Governments

#215

Post by asdff »

flexie wrote: post #79
matchbok wrote: post #15

AirBnb is a terrible, terrible company. Most of their money comes from corporate-owned mini-hotels yet they advertise as a mom and pop shop. At every turn their solution is to sue small towns and cities so they can continue to extract wealth from our neighborhoods. Disgusting.

There are not many "corporate-owned mini-hotels" but there are certainly hundreds of thousands of people that buy one or more apartments with the purpose of renting them out through AirBnB (or not sell apartments that they would otherwise have gotten rid off). AirBnB doesn't make the little guy make a few extra bucks renting out a room as much as it makes those who already have money buy up studios and one bedroom ap…

You don't even have to buy, you can throw down a security deposit, drop $1000 at ikea, and airbnb all month and make rent and more. You don't even have to ever step foot in the unit or meet a single guest; there are interior decorators and cleaning services that specialize in Airbnbs and you can stick the key in a lock box and change the password between stays.

Re: Airbnb’s ‘Guerrilla War’ Against Local Governments

#216

Post by clumpthump »

iandanforth wrote: post #37

This seems like an overly critical article. Zoning laws and NIMBY impulses should be fought tooth-and-nail and I'm glad Airbnb is doing so. The platform has allowed me to actually enjoy travel in ways I never could before. What I feel like is missing is a communication path from the community to the platform. Because people start by calling the police to complain it immediately becomes a legal and local ordinance iss…

>If it were easy to report abuses to Airbnb directly

They have made plenty clear that they don't really care about how people near the rental unit are affected. They will never make this happen unless "NIMBY impulses" put enough pressure on them to do so.

Re: Airbnb’s ‘Guerrilla War’ Against Local Governments

#217

Post by seattle_spring »

unknownkadath wrote: post #160

Nashville resident here. A drunk airbnb user tried to break into a neighbor's house around 11 pm last week while the residents were inside. He was lost and thought he was at his rental, but that wasn't apparent to anyone else in the beginning, so my wife gets a call for help from another neighbor and we go to check it out. When we get there, we discover the assailant has been treed on a shed roof by the woman whose d…

That can also happen to someone just staying with a friend. Therefore, the only reasonable course of action is to ban all people from staying with their friends.

Re: Airbnb’s ‘Guerrilla War’ Against Local Governments

#218

Post by SiempreViernes »

SkyBelow wrote: post #163
bluGill wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a right to dictate who parks in my driveway. I have rights to a quiet time to sleep at night. I don't object to you running a hotel next door, but I expect your guests to behave themselves well..

It seems the issue here is that when you are wronged (my guest are way too noisy), you don't have an adequate solution to seek compensation from me, and give enough instances of something like this happening, we turn more towards an outright ban on something that can give rise to the injustice but is not itself an injustice, but which is easier to enforce. Perhaps if the root issues were given some easy way for one t…

Sure, but the satisfactory resolution would be that the airbnb host gets the guests to shut up quickly (say within 10 minutes): that's not possible without extra costs and hassle that makes people give up on renting out altogether.

Re: Airbnb’s ‘Guerrilla War’ Against Local Governments

#219

Post by unknownkadath »

seattle_spring wrote: post #217
unknownkadath wrote: post #160

Nashville resident here. A drunk airbnb user tried to break into a neighbor's house around 11 pm last week while the residents were inside. He was lost and thought he was at his rental, but that wasn't apparent to anyone else in the beginning, so my wife gets a call for help from another neighbor and we go to check it out. When we get there, we discover the assailant has been treed on a shed roof by the woman whose d…

That can also happen to someone just staying with a friend. Therefore, the only reasonable course of action is to ban all people from staying with their friends.

I think it's safe to say that most alcohol-enjoying visitors to our fair city don't have friends here to crash with.

Re: Airbnb’s ‘Guerrilla War’ Against Local Governments

#220

Post by munk-a »

parthdesai wrote: post #179
munk-a wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do have some effect on pricing, sure, but there is a much larger culprit in local zoning practices at work when it comes to housing affordability.

I'm not talking about only SF though.

Overly aggressive zoning isn't an issue specific to SF, it is much more hilariously stupid there, but people living near or within cities in detached houses elsewhere lobby continuously against higher density and public transit to try and keep their neighborhood the quiet one. I'm up in Vancouver and we've got some really strong NIMBY idiots here that are fighting tooth and nail against expanding the skytrain so that it actually services the universities while fighting against density increases in Kitsilano which, honestly, is basically a part of downtown now.

Stupid people are abundant everywhere.

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