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Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

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Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#11

Post by malechimp »

Being a regular customer in a very hot market (Dublin) I can attest that most of the places I've been to were grossly overpriced and let's not speak about the quality.

Back in the fat cows era (up until a few months ago) it seemed that Airbnb was synonymous to "if you have a spare doghouse in a hot overpriced market then you can make very good money out of it". Not to mention how airbnb was contributing to such markets to get even more overpriced by causing shortages.

And now they are urging customers to sponsor hosts...

Yup. Definitely someone there must have lost it entirely.

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#12

Post by throwaway0a5e »

You know who's still paying their rent on time?

The government.

The section 8 landlords are enjoying some serious schadenfreude right now because even though they only cash small checks once a month they're the only ones still cashing checks at all.

Short term rentals have an effective monthly rent far in excess of the normal monthly rent for equivalent accommodations. With this payoff comes risk. The money source can dry up on you much faster. I have no more sympathy for people who went all in on AirBNB than I do for people who went all in on day trading.

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#13

Post by StavrosK »

kozhevnikov wrote: post #5
pavel_lishin wrote: post #2

> Airbnb has lost its fucking head. Why would I donate to my host? I can't even afford one house. Well, at least it sounds like many of those hosts can't, either.

Other articles of this topic mentioned this titbit: > The financial situation is especially dire for megahosts, some of whom bought up dozens of properties and built short-term-rental empires that made up their main source of income (about one-third of Airbnb hosts have more than 25 properties, according to the analytics site AirDNA). https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-asking-renters-to-don...

Now where did I put my tiniest violin...

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#14

Post by sleavey »

This was really short sighted given Airbnb have claimed since the beginning to regulators, local authorities and the public that they exist only to provide a platform for people to rent out their spare rooms when it's convenient for them. Their core claim is that they are not a hotel company, which is how they manage to skirt so many hotel regulations. Built into these claims is the assumption that the owners of the properties offered on the platform can afford to keep them without renting then out full time, since it's supposed to be their primary home.

In reality, Airbnb is a glorified hotel room broker but with added facilitation of discrimination, normalisation of the charging of extra fees such as for "cleaning" (how have hotels managed to get by since time immemorial without charging one!?), rating obfuscation and a huge negative impact on local rental prices with landlords assembling empires of dozens of Airbnb properties. The fact Airbnb were so tone deaf to all this, asking the public to offset the losses made by landlords in times like these is really incredible.

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#15

Post by fennecfoxen »

paulcole wrote: post #6
treebornfrog wrote: post #3

I suspect that a lot of people jumped on the airbnb hype train and thought they could be a landlord of multiple properties and probably got leveraged. Now they're in trouble as their income dries up.

Interesting theory. How’d you come to that conclusion?

Perhaps poster has read news coverage.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-bargain-with-the-devilbill-co...

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#16

Post by thealistra »

Wouldn't it be a better idea to have some CTA for like future booking or booking voucher so the hosts can get money now for a future service? So you know if someone really likes a place and visits it every year can spare a few bucks if they can to freeze it

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#17

Post by jamesholden »

StavrosK wrote: post #13
kozhevnikov wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other articles of this topic mentioned this titbit: > The financial situation is especially dire for megahosts, some of whom bought up dozens of properties and built short-term-rental empires that made up their main source of income (about one-third of Airbnb hosts have more than 25 properties, according to the analytics site AirDNA). https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-asking-renters-to-don...

Now where did I put my tiniest violin...

Right? And a 3rd of them? That's a lot of people.. think of all the properties and inflated rents in areas where people could have gotten long term homes.

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#19

Post by malechimp »

kozhevnikov wrote: post #5
pavel_lishin wrote: post #2

> Airbnb has lost its fucking head. Why would I donate to my host? I can't even afford one house. Well, at least it sounds like many of those hosts can't, either.

Other articles of this topic mentioned this titbit: > The financial situation is especially dire for megahosts, some of whom bought up dozens of properties and built short-term-rental empires that made up their main source of income (about one-third of Airbnb hosts have more than 25 properties, according to the analytics site AirDNA). https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-asking-renters-to-don...

It's called investing. Investing is another name for risking. Those people risked. Atm they are losing. In future they might gain. Heck, for years before that they were gaining big time.

Unless they have a very strong lobby (such as bankers, etc) they cannot make anyone else pay for their loss. And that's how it's supposed to be.

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#20

Post by sleavey »

kozhevnikov wrote: post #5
pavel_lishin wrote: post #2

> Airbnb has lost its fucking head. Why would I donate to my host? I can't even afford one house. Well, at least it sounds like many of those hosts can't, either.

Other articles of this topic mentioned this titbit: > The financial situation is especially dire for megahosts, some of whom bought up dozens of properties and built short-term-rental empires that made up their main source of income (about one-third of Airbnb hosts have more than 25 properties, according to the analytics site AirDNA). https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-asking-renters-to-don...

The attitude of many people towards property is incredible. People expect house prices to rise and rise and somehow think they've been wronged by society/government policy/acts of god if the bubble bursts and they lose money. I've been called out by many ordinarily level headed people for saying that owning property is a risky investment.
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