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

Airbnb removes 80% of advertisements in Amsterdam after registration obligation

ruetir.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 405 posts

Re: Airbnb removes 80% of advertisements in Amsterdam after registration obligation

#61

Post by DonHopkins »

locallost wrote: post #46
jikbd wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah… who are the owners of a flat to decide what to do with it, eh?

There are tons of limitations to what you can do with your property. E.g. you can own land but can't build a house if the land is not zoned for it. Even the meaning of property has changed over the centuries. It's no longer acceptable to own a human being, which was a contested idea not too long ago. It's the people that make a society that decide what they want the rules to be. Good for the people of Amsterdam that…

If it's no longer acceptable to own a human being, that's going to be a problem for the gimp training and service industry in Amsterdam.

https://www.nobleprog.nl/en/gimp/training/amsterdam

>Gimp Training in Amsterdam

>Online or onsite, instructor-led live Gimp training courses demonstrate through interactive discussion and hands-on practice the fundamentals and advanced topics of Gimp and Gimpshop.

>Gimp training is available as "online live training" or "onsite live training". Online live training (aka "remote live training") is carried out by way of an interactive, remote desktop. Onsite live Gimp training can be carried out locally on customer premises in Amsterdam or in NobleProg corporate training centers in Amsterdam.

https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/ShowUserReviews-g188590-d1491...

>Different and enjoyable, but expensive

>Travelled to the Supper Club with my girlfriend and we had a great time. Waiters in gimp suits, rubber gloves upon arrival and comfy beds to lounge on while we ate, created a unique experience.

Re: Airbnb removes 80% of advertisements in Amsterdam after registration obligation

#62

Post by Panzer04 »

jurmous wrote: post #12
djbebs wrote: post #3

Shame that local councils are once again meddling in things they have no business being in.

Amsterdam is a city being overrun by tourists and that is something local councils should be able to control. Locals have difficulty to find homes as prices are raising to high levels. https://nltimes.nl/2016/10/13/amsterdam-center-overrun-touri... https://www.travelandtourworld.com/news/article/amsterdam-is... https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2020/01/amsterdam-house-prices...

I don't understand why houses should be excluded from the capitalistic process; If councils were doing their job and permitting sufficient housing construction, then high prices = more housing = everyone is happy.

I'm no expert on Amsterdam, but checking your last article mentions rent control; why would property developers bother building new housing when the returns are artificially deflated by government action? This is precisely the problem with regulations, they damage price signals. It would not at all surprise me if the government is in part causing all of these problems.

I will also note that housing being expensive in a large, popular city is basically the case the world over, and I suspect tourists are just an easy scapegoat to deflect blame from policy failure.

Re: Airbnb removes 80% of advertisements in Amsterdam after registration obligation

#63

Post by toshk »

eecc wrote: post #24
saddlerustle wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not about taxes, its about making it easier for the city to enforce the ban on short-term rentals.

It is definitely about both. And about returning the city to citizens who've been priced out by the tourism industry. There's nothing wrong with being a cultural hot-ground, a travel destination, a mindshare icon... but turning a city into an intensive farming Disneyland is another thing.

It was already obligated to register every time you rented.

Re: Airbnb removes 80% of advertisements in Amsterdam after registration obligation

#64

Post by tgv »

hesselink wrote: post #30

It is worth noting that according to a (Dutch language) article I read this morning, 90% of the listings that were removed had not been booked in the last year according to an Airbnb spokesperson. Paywalled Dutch language link: https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/airbnb-raakt-dr...

Almost as if there was some global event preventing travel.

Re: Airbnb removes 80% of advertisements in Amsterdam after registration obligation

#65

Post by gerikson »

DonHopkins wrote: post #61
locallost wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are tons of limitations to what you can do with your property. E.g. you can own land but can't build a house if the land is not zoned for it. Even the meaning of property has changed over the centuries. It's no longer acceptable to own a human being, which was a contested idea not too long ago. It's the people that make a society that decide what they want the rules to be. Good for the people of Amsterdam that…

If it's no longer acceptable to own a human being, that's going to be a problem for the gimp training and service industry in Amsterdam. https://www.nobleprog.nl/en/gimp/training/amsterdam >Gimp Training in Amsterdam >Online or onsite, instructor-led live Gimp training courses demonstrate through interactive discussion and hands-on practice the fundamentals and advanced topics of Gimp and Gimpshop. >Gimp training is…

I'm pretty sure the waiters are paid competitive rates and are free to seek other employment. So comparing them to literal slaves is disingenuous.

Re: Airbnb removes 80% of advertisements in Amsterdam after registration obligation

#66

Post by em500 »

srmarm wrote: post #36

Airbnb was amazing to start with, I stayed with some many interesting people and in interesting places. It's a shame that it's now so commoditised.

Lot's of experiences are amazing and wonderful when very few people do it, but they morph into something different when the masses come in. National parks. A rustic cafe in an old town. A picknick along a river bank. High signal internet forums. Venice. Zhangjiajie. Driving cars.

I don't know if any solution exists. It seems to me that the only way to preserve the original experience is via some sort of exclusiveness, which immediately provokes a backlash. Especially exclusions based on money.

Re: Airbnb removes 80% of advertisements in Amsterdam after registration obligation

#67

Post by philliphaydon »

wombatmobile wrote: post #43
philliphaydon wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After being screwed over by Airbnb, I welcome the meddling.

What was your experience with Airbnb?

I needed a serviced apartment, and decided to use Airbnb because between Agoda and Airbnb, it was ever-so-slightly cheaper. When I searched it said the 100% refundable cancellation policy. So I made the booking, I adjusted the dates to 30 days, it didn't tell me that changing the date range to > 28 days changes the cancellation policy to an entirelly different policy that is dictated by the host.

So when the Taiwan border opened by 3 weeks before I was due to go to the serviced apartment, I couldn't cancel without losing 100% of the money as the 'new' cancellation policy was 100% non-refundable.

Contacting Airbnb they said there's a different policy if the booking is for more than 28 days, and so it's up to the host, so in the end the host reluctantly agreed to a 75% refund.

I could have paid 10% extra on Agoda for the same serviced apartment, and cancelled 24 hours before checking in and got 100% refund.

Airbnb letting hosts dictate cancellation policies, and not properly relaying information when paying, prevents me ever touching airbnb again.

Re: Airbnb removes 80% of advertisements in Amsterdam after registration obligation

#68

Post by zhdc1 »

Ekaros wrote: post #56
bartread wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't especially mind tourists in moderate numbers - after all, from time to time, I play the tourist myself. However, I live and work in Cambridge, and if we were to put what you suggest into practice the city would become an absolutely intolerable place to be for everyone. AirBnb may or may not be a big problem here but, if it is, it's a subset of a bigger problem: buy to let. I'd like to see buy to let severely…

I really see no issues with buy to let if supply is sufficiently high. Sad reality is that building new units is too expensive. Realistically, real estate should not be very good investment. Maybe it should generate 1-2% a net per year and in 50-100 year timeframe depreciate to zero.

> Realistically, real estate should not be very good investment.

Real estate isn't a particularly attractive investment, even in the best of times. Single family homes net around 8%, which is 2-4% less per year than what you would expect to get with an index fund. This is with leverage. It only becomes lucrative when you have a change in interest rates (lower mortgage payments leads to higher cash returns), demand (which is why AirBnB rentals are so popular), or regulations.

Of course, the occasional property will sell for well under market, but so will any other type of asset.

> Maybe it should generate 1-2% a net per year and in 50-100 year timeframe depreciate to zero.

I think you're suggesting that real estate should have a lower annual return than other forms of investing, which I agree with and - in general - is what actually happens.

Re: Airbnb removes 80% of advertisements in Amsterdam after registration obligation

#70

Post by b112 »

hdjjhhvvhga wrote: post #15
airza wrote: post #2

It says advertisements in the article, but maybe a more clear term is 'listing'?

Yes that confused me too.

It may flow through the days of newspapers for apartment rentals. A person wanted to sublet, to rent, an ad in the paper was the way.

And listings are ads, just with deferred payment (eg, once rented, then you kick a percent at the platform).

Another "common person" thinks of it differently than we do, thing?

Post reply on HN