Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

sfgate.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 195 posts

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

#181

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan »

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...

This didn't sound right to me, and it looks like they've indeed corrected that line in the article.

> (about one-third of Airbnb properties are owned by hosts who manage at least 25 properties, according to the analytics site AirDNA).

This makes more sense.

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

#182

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan »

throwaway98797 wrote: post #132
tirpen wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now they're in trouble as their income dries up. Good.

Serves them right for taking a risk.

It serves them right for driving up rents and housing costs in their cities, which contributes to homelessness.

It's a watered down version of the same schadenfreude people felt when the guys that hoarded warehouses full of N95 masks got burned. They made a large investment and took a risk, but their speculation was at the expense of the wider community, so they shouldn't be surprised when the community had no pity on them when their investment didn't work out.

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

#183

Post by foota »

Kaze404 wrote: post #60
foota wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally would rather hotels separate a per cleaning fee and allow me to choose not to have it done every day.

What does that change for the hotel at the end of the day? Cleaning a room that's been dirty for a week is the same (if not more) effort than cleaning it every day, considering they can't just hire staff for one day of the week.

I think there's two things missing here. One is that not everyone leaves on the same day, so cleaning would still be distributed throughout the week. Secondly. They could still require something like once every 3 days. My room is always spotless when I stay, I don't understand how cleaning it for most people would take much longer.

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

#184

Post by treebornfrog »

chupy wrote: post #178
treebornfrog wrote: post #98

The second order effects are catastrophic too. Think of all the companies that built their entire business model around helping airbnb owners manage their bookings / rental For examples,hostmaker, which was heavily advertising in London (transport mainly) has gone bankrupt (1). They raised ~24M (2) (1) https://hostmaker.com/gb/london/ (2) https://angel.co/company/hostmaker/funding

Do you think we should also start donating to them?

Not at all, just adding to the fact that 1) hosts were leveraged and are hurting. 2) entire companies are going bankrupt because their model is based mainly on airbnb demand.

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

#185

Post by earthboundkid »

2038AD wrote: post #138
earthboundkid wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a truly end-of-capitalism† move to shift the risk burden of property ownership from the center to the periphery. I guess McDonalds does this too with its franchises, but this is so much more pure: you own the property, you figure out all the property management work, and AirBnB takes the cut. McDonalds at least sends its franchises frozen hamburgers. AirBnB is just pure toll-bridge-as-a-service. † Not sure if ca…

> Not sure if capitalism will actually end any time soon It can't because any change or evolution keeps the name. The only way to end it would be to revert back to a pre-capitalist economy that's not been retroactively deemed one (either by fans or detractors).

Yes, people call China “capitalist” now, but I don’t think that’s a very good label for what they’re doing. It’s a bad label because the category is not well defined.

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

#186

Post by monkeynotes »

joshstrange wrote: post #167
monkeynotes wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have somewhat of a 'not in my backyard' opinion of Airbnb. I have admittedly used the service multiple times, but since I moved into a new house I've changed my view on the business model. Our neighbour Airbnbs multiple rooms in his house full time. He barely has parking for 3 cars, 2 cars if you don't want to be boxed in. However he rents out room for 6 people. He constantly has business moving through his house,…

I think the important distinction is the side effects of having a neighbor that rents out on AirBnB. In your case it's "occasionally his guests encroach on our driveway which is adjacent to his" which I think is unacceptable. I have rented ~10 AirBnB's with friends over the years and in every case we either flew into the location and used Uber/Lyft to get around or carpooled there resulting in us only using the allow…

I'd like an actual neighbour, not rotating guests who never get to know you. Half the year the owner lives in abroad and when he's gone the guests don't know how to put trash out, don't plow snow, don't know where to park etc.

It's these small things that chip away at the otherwise close-nit neighbourhood.

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

#187

Post by monkeynotes »

wendyshu wrote: post #139
monkeynotes wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have somewhat of a 'not in my backyard' opinion of Airbnb. I have admittedly used the service multiple times, but since I moved into a new house I've changed my view on the business model. Our neighbour Airbnbs multiple rooms in his house full time. He barely has parking for 3 cars, 2 cars if you don't want to be boxed in. However he rents out room for 6 people. He constantly has business moving through his house,…

Their cars partly block your driveway? Do they make a lot of noise? What are the other impacts on you?

Cars do not block our driveway, they just take up space. This happens especially when the owner does not plow snow on his driveway. Guests basically cannot park on his driveway.

Noise is not a problem, fortunately.

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

#188

Post by monkeynotes »

parliament32 wrote: post #161
monkeynotes wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have somewhat of a 'not in my backyard' opinion of Airbnb. I have admittedly used the service multiple times, but since I moved into a new house I've changed my view on the business model. Our neighbour Airbnbs multiple rooms in his house full time. He barely has parking for 3 cars, 2 cars if you don't want to be boxed in. However he rents out room for 6 people. He constantly has business moving through his house,…

I don't really see how this bothers you. If they're parking on your driveway, just call a tow truck. If they're on the street, you're SOL unless you can pitch the city to make your street "residential parking only" with decals (but this is no different from your neighbour just owning 8 cars and street parking them).

I'd have to put up a sign notifying cars will be towed. I simply don't want to have to deal with the problem. Why should I have to deal with this in a residential neighbourhood where my expectation is to have an actual neighbour who understands his property line?

Putting the onus on me to deal with his guests is a problem that bothers me in of itself.

If you had the same situation I am sure you'd grow tired of it pretty quick.

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

#189

Post by monkeynotes »

joejerryronnie wrote: post #164
monkeynotes wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have somewhat of a 'not in my backyard' opinion of Airbnb. I have admittedly used the service multiple times, but since I moved into a new house I've changed my view on the business model. Our neighbour Airbnbs multiple rooms in his house full time. He barely has parking for 3 cars, 2 cars if you don't want to be boxed in. However he rents out room for 6 people. He constantly has business moving through his house,…

Is this fundamentally different than your next door neighbor replacing their SFH with a 4 story apartment building? One could say Airbnb rentals are based on want and traditional rental housing is based on need, but the residents of the theoretical apartment building don’t “need” to live on your street.

> Is this fundamentally different than your next door neighbor replacing their SFH with a 4 story apartment building?

Yes, with actual long-term neighbours I only have to tell them once where the property line is and how to deal with trash pickup. Also there is zoning and bylaws regulating multiple occupancy homes, and I can look that up before purchasing my house.

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

#190

Post by monkeynotes »

_y5hn wrote: post #147
monkeynotes wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have somewhat of a 'not in my backyard' opinion of Airbnb. I have admittedly used the service multiple times, but since I moved into a new house I've changed my view on the business model. Our neighbour Airbnbs multiple rooms in his house full time. He barely has parking for 3 cars, 2 cars if you don't want to be boxed in. However he rents out room for 6 people. He constantly has business moving through his house,…

What needs to happen is to realize this before your neighbour started his Airbnb business.

And how exactly do you do that when an existing neighbour can start his business after the fact?
Post reply on HN