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Airbnb removes 80% of advertisements in Amsterdam after registration obligation

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281–290 of 405 posts

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

#281
post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing with legal taxis is that the quality of their service is complete shit. At least in some countries. You dont know how much you will pay (their estimates are always too low) and the first questions by the driver are to check if you know the town. If you dont sound like a local, then they will drive you through the longest route possible. And worst: you can do nothing about it. No way to report the licensed d…

I wonder if we can make Yelp for taxis. Open the app, scan the plate, check the reviews, if they're bad, go to the next taxi. But I guess dodgy taxi drivers would just buy new license plate (e.g. for their "own" private cars) and swap them - ok in a lot of jurisdictions taxi plates look different to normal car plates. Or the taxi driver can be made aware of the bad reviews and they'd have to do a deal with the app us…

In some countries there are some private apps for Taxis that work just like Uber. I know of some stories of drivers who were banned after dodgy behaviour, or cancellations.

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

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's old vs young, new vs established. For most homeowners, their home is their most valuable asset. It's just not possible to simultaneously maintain high property values and have affordable housing. Given this, any "solution" to housing affordability is "solving" a problem that a sizable and highly influential segment of the population doesn't want solved. On the contrary, you see real government action whenever ho…

That's a good point. By some measures it isn't just the wealthy keeping the poor vulnerable; it's everyone who isn't poor. In this case, middle class voters. In the US, our shortsightedness has begun threatening the lower-middle class. People with some cash in the bank are facing homelessness, due to a historic lack of housing. The housing shortage came following dozens of contributors including NIMBY, AirBnB, single…

It's not really multiple factors. There was only one. Restrictive zoning. That constrained supply. Everything else is just the various parties fighting over the now-insufficient housing supply.

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

#283
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.

I moved away and returned to NYC twice between 2010 and 2020 - both times it was impossible to miss the impact AirBnB had on the residential rental supply. All over the city, wherever weekly demand was high enough (read, in any neighborhood remotely desirable), rental housing stock was lost to short-term rentals.

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

#284

AirBnB and everything around it has mutated into something big and ugly since where it began. Seems like we need good old couch surfing forums back.

>AirBnB and everything around it has mutated into something big and ugly since where it began. Now I am 100% out of the sphere of technology, but isn't skirting regulation to make money exactly how AirBnB got started?

It started as a convenience for people willing to let people they like crash at their place while they are away and get some pocket money for their own travel. Mostly unofficially, yes, and I feel no problem with this. But they turnt it into big business. Now whole buildings are built for AirBnB, professional landlords take mortgages to buy apartments just to let them at AirBnB, it's all over in the news, the prices are on par with hotels and the landlords seemingly don't care about any "face control" (as they normally would if it was about letting their actual home for a weekend) so even thugs can have the keys.

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

#285
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 20% yoy housing price increases in NL have made it more than profitable to leave properties dormant. This is another factor in the housing crisis here, savings are taxed so wealthy individuals are all investing in property.

Only your primary residence gets to be tax-free in box 1 though? Any other real estate you own falls under box 3 and and is thus subject to the wealth tax ("vermogensbelasting"). See https://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/bldcontentnl/... for details (Dutch page)

I think there’s a clear imbalance between stagnant money in a bank account versus rent-generating property - both being taxed as wealth tax. Hence, demand for real estate.

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

#286
post #126

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The condescension and lack of humanity that some people here have is baffling.

how does noticing that a lot of people changed their occupation during the pandemic connect to lack of humanity? I am puzzled.

Well-paid software engineers sneering at the general public for not changing careers during a global pandemic, exhibits an obvious lack of humanity.

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

#287
post #138

It was really weird walking in Amsterdam during summer this time around. Generally for past few year, I had seen explosions of tourists doing a weekend tours. There used to be barely any foot space to walk near dam square and shopping streets. This time I just was able to be make an appoint for Anne Frank museum a day before and simply walk in without a queue. This is the conundrum of tourism. If you too much tourist…

Same in Berlin in 2020. What a strange feeling it was to walk through the city almost alone. A big disaster for hotels & business, but a small wonder for the local crowd.

It often seems to be the case that, in cities, the interests of businesses are opposed to the interests of residents.

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

#288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Air travel is still great if you fly first class, which if I remember correctly, is exactly as expensive as air travel was in the good old days.

Not since 9/11 , the security theatre is still very painful, even in first. I'm sure it's much more comfortable if you're flying general aviation, but that's still way more expensive than commercial ever was, even in the 60s

Air travel via private jet is better than the early days though.

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

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Airbnb is a parasite and one of the first things cities should look at when rethinking their tourism strategies. As someone who has traveled extensively, I agree entirely about "disneyland syndrome", and I'm one of those travelers that tries to avoid such things. I generally don't travel to places which are tourist destinations, in the first place. Regardless, my mode of travel is to try to meet people, stay long e…

> Regardless, my mode of travel is to try to meet people, stay long enough that I can live normally as a local ... The thing is that as a tourist/traveler, it's not all about you (or me). You need to consider and be respectful of the impact your experience can have on the very locals you want to live like. Your desire to have a kitchen is reasonably not more important than a local's desire to not see the apartment ne…

That's a fair point, I suppose while I am not Tom, Dick, or Harry, it is also a significant barrier to not know if you will have accommodations ahead of arrival, so for those off the beaten path places AirBnB is pretty important. FWIW, I have in fact signed leases and stayed in places with "legitimate" rentals (I think AirBnB is only illegitimate where it violates law, which is not everywhere). A minimum stay for me most places has been about a month, in some I've stayed over a year. It depends on what is allowed by the visa I am able to obtain and whether or not I find that there is reason to stay longer. I would consider what I do "medium-term" rather than short-term. I can't necessarily sign a 13-month lease everywhere I go, but I also am there much longer than the typical tourist which is between 3 and 7 days.

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

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

The thing is that you guys from Russia have started thinking that you're the solo holder of human sufference, I come from Southern Italy with Mafia and absent government, where rich get richer, kids play on the street surrounded by heroin needles, all with few castles of rich people being the kings among the shit, so yeah I won't dare to tell you how entitled you are to your ideas, but probably if the people that too…

The proper solution is not to rob the rich under the cheering applause of people like you, but to make poor people more wealthy.
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