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Airbnb removes 80% of advertisements in Amsterdam after registration obligation

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

#181

Post by beckman466 »

pdimitar wrote: post #171
beckman466 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a lose-lose proposition for anybody but the most short-term minded. "[I]n recent years the realisation has dawned that what’s good for Silicon Valley is not always good for everyone. What started with scrappy upstarts promising to make the world a better place has morphed into something more sinister: a pantheon of faceless multinationals who collectively dominate the world’s digital infrastructure, flouting regula…

It hasn't "morphed" into anything. It always was a way to easy money (while lying through their teeth), but way too many people are naive and couldn't see it earlier.

> but way too many people are naive and couldn't see it earlier.

right, yeah, so others are dumb and you're enlightened?

> It hasn't "morphed" into anything. It always was a way to easy money (while lying through their teeth)

i don't get comments like yours. i'm sharing this quote because i like that whole article by Wendy Liu. Wendy agrees with you, and so do i. so why not just read it? your comment comes across know-it-all-y and bitter.

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

#182

Post by olalonde »

streamofdigits wrote: post #81

Regulatory arbitrage of some sort seems to be involved in many recent digital business models. Whether it concerns or involves (lack of) data privacy regulation, "reinventing" labour contracts or undercutting taxation frameworks, it is a most cruel reminder of how poor the management of the commons. While many of the efficiencies and attractions of re-inventing various businesses for the "digital age" seem genuine, t…

It's a most cruel reminder of how bad regulations are.

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

#183

Post by yetihehe »

secondcoming wrote: post #177
yetihehe wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recently I heard a joke about postmen leaving aviso instead of delivering post. If you see him leaving aviso, you can legally beat him. You have his signed proof that you weren't home at the time.

'aviso'?

Written notification about tried delivery of a letter or package which can only be received in person. If you are not home, you can go to nearest post office and receive it there. Sorry, I thought it's english word.

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

#184

Post by lnxg33k1 »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #140
jacquesm wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I realize this, even so, for Amsterdam it was a very much needed reprieve.

So you work hard to make your city to become one of the major tourist destinations in the world, who bring in a lot of money and help the local business flourish, and then need a reprieve from that? Kinda counterproductive, no?

It's rich getting richer at the cost of a whole bunch of individuals getting f*ked, hospitality staff is still being underpaid with 0hours contracts, and tenants are still being f*ked with increased housing prices, so COVID was quite good for lower classes, and I have no sympathy for the upper ones, the worst they get, the happier I am

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

#185

Post by brezelgoring »

bennysomething wrote: post #154
factorialboy wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I don't pay taxes, I can pass some of those "savings" to the customer, thus beating the competition on price. If you must compete, you must avoid taxes, thus cheat.

So the only way you can compete is by avoiding tax?

All other things being equal, yes.

Ceteris Paribus is a thing in economics. Basically what he means is that if you optimize everything in your business, all that remains is what is outside the bounds of the law, if you cheat, you'll win, basically forcing the other to cheat as well.

Also, all big businesses cheat tax, either by using creative licensing agreements between subsidiaries or by miscategorizing things. This isn't new.

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

#186

Post by pietrovismara »

dorchadas wrote: post #86
scrose wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Years ago when Airbnb was picking up steam and I was in college I got a gig building a tool to automate cross-referencing Airbnb listings with housing records so the city could request the optional tourism tax. What we found surprised all of them. A handful of people were listing sometimes over a dozen properties and avoiding the larger, but not optional, hotel tax. The 80% figure doesn’t surprise me much now just kn…

> how a few individuals can flood the short-term rental market in an area. And, if it's like some cities (Dublin, Galway), they do this at the expense of the long-term rental market.

Pretty much the same happens in Firenze, Italy.

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

#187

Post by A_Venom_Roll »

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.

What I really liked in the early days is that there was more interaction with the host, because you often rented a room in their place or a part of the appartment, while they were still living there. Lot's of interesting conversation. Nowadays it's just business for a lot of hosts, they don't even bother welcoming you and put the key in a keysafe.

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

#188

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

lnxg33k1 wrote: post #184
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you work hard to make your city to become one of the major tourist destinations in the world, who bring in a lot of money and help the local business flourish, and then need a reprieve from that? Kinda counterproductive, no?

It's rich getting richer at the cost of a whole bunch of individuals getting f* ked, hospitality staff is still being underpaid with 0hours contracts, and tenants are still being f* ked with increased housing prices, so COVID was quite good for lower classes, and I have no sympathy for the upper ones, the worst they get, the happier I am

> and I have no sympathy for the upper ones, the worst they get, the happier I am

That's the stance I fully despise. My country (Russia) has suffered tremendously (and still does, 100 years later) because people sharing such ideas took power, killing dozens of millions in the process.

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

#189

Post by pietrovismara »

LurkingPenguin wrote: post #165
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you work hard to make your city to become one of the major tourist destinations in the world, who bring in a lot of money and help the local business flourish, and then need a reprieve from that? Kinda counterproductive, no?

Even as an expat who has been traveling and living abroad for years, I'd have to admit it's true that tourism doesn't necessarily remain a beneficial thing as tourist numbers get larger. I'm generally not a fan of the word "sustainable" so I won't use the phrase "sustainable tourism", but it behooves cities (and countries) to find a balance between making themselves attractive to tourists and making sure that the cos…

> tourism doesn't necessarily remain a beneficial thing as tourist numbers get larger

I always said this. Italy is addicted to tourism, an addiction that so far has only benefitted a few, while impacting negatively the majority of the population.

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

#190

Post by foobarian »

Tabular-Iceberg wrote: post #88
nikanj wrote: post #9

So essentially 80% were not properly registered and paying taxes? I’m not that surprised, once a good double-digit number are cheating, cheating becomes the only viable way to remain competitive.

>I’m not that surprised, once a good double-digit number are cheating, cheating becomes the only viable way to remain competitive. Is that not always the case with these American marketplace apps? Now that the property owners have to follow the rules, they have the same burden as the real hotels, but none of the economy of scale. Same with all the places where they make Uber drivers be actual taxi drivers in actual t…

Honestly that is all I wanted from them. Taxi service with a well designed universal phone app with map routing and payment. I guess the established players figured out they didn't need a thing like that but it looks like they were proven wrong.
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