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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

#291
post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> It always was a way to easy money Tell me again how Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Apple and Facebook were "easy money" The devil personified in here, Mark Zuckerberg turned down the most "easy money" ever. 1 billion in cash for a couple years old company with an unproven business model, very few paying customers and no moat to speak of. You gotta choose one, if extreme luck is involved in the process then it's not "ea…

>You gotta choose one, if extreme luck is involved in the process then it's not "easy" because it could have gone the other way as well, and the protagonists knew it too, but still decided to step into the arena.

No, you can make very easy money playing the lotto. All you have to do is give the gas station guy $2 and you're a billionaire. Just because you're the one who got lucky doesn't mean it's hard work or anything.

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

#292

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…

And that's what I think OP was alluding to about it being "inextricably connected to capitalism". As long as we treat housing like an asset, we'll have this problem. And I don't see how there's any other way to treat housing under a capitalist system.

The problem isn't a result of treating housing as an asset, it's a structural regulatory problem. Housing is treated as an asset in Tokyo, but they don't have the same regulatory constraints on zoning, so they don't have outrageous housing prices.

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

#293
post #66
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…

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

#294
I've often thought that municipal regulations would be the best way to get rid of unsavory American corporations.

Another one that I'm not surprised has happened yet is a ~$5,000 dollar per day fine for an unattended cash register. That would get rid of CVS and Walgreens overnight.

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

#295
post #294

I've often thought that municipal regulations would be the best way to get rid of unsavory American corporations. Another one that I'm not surprised has happened yet is a ~$5,000 dollar per day fine for an unattended cash register. That would get rid of CVS and Walgreens overnight.

I’m sure i’m being dense here, but can you please explain the justification for fining a retailer for an unattended cash register? Also what’s unsavory about CVS/Walgreens?

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

#296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> I suppose while I am not Tom, Dick, or Harry...

How are you not Tom, Dick or Harry? When I first started traveling, I believed the "I'm different" thing too, but it's a bit hubristic. Tourists come in all shapes and sizes these days and there are a lot of location-independent folks ("nomads") who will move around every few weeks or months, not days.

In my experience, most "off the beaten path" places that have Airbnb listings almost always have at least one legitimate hotel, hostel, or homestay. In fact, I'd go so far as to suggest that most places that have Airbnbs aren't nearly as "off the beaten path" as you're telling yourself.

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

#297
post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It always was a way to easy money Tell me again how Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Apple and Facebook were "easy money" The devil personified in here, Mark Zuckerberg turned down the most "easy money" ever. 1 billion in cash for a couple years old company with an unproven business model, very few paying customers and no moat to speak of. You gotta choose one, if extreme luck is involved in the process then it's not "ea…

>You gotta choose one, if extreme luck is involved in the process then it's not "easy" because it could have gone the other way as well, and the protagonists knew it too, but still decided to step into the arena. No, you can make very easy money playing the lotto. All you have to do is give the gas station guy $2 and you're a billionaire. Just because you're the one who got lucky doesn't mean it's hard work or anythi…

The hard work is concentrated in the process of betting your life on a very unprobable outcome

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

#298
post #285
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not to mention that the Dutch wealth tax assumes that you are making a quite specific return on your capital, whether you actually do or not isn't something the tax man cares about.

With 'savings' as an asset class now a liability there is a huge flight of capital into real estate, which so far has been pretty resilient against this.

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

#299
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…

A friend was visiting NYC and staying in my Brooklyn neighborhood at an Airbnb back in 2019. One night we were out and we ran into his Airbnb host at a bar. He was French and told me he had about a couple dozen units in the neighborhood all converted to Airbnb hotels, none of which he owned, all of them in some sort of agreement with the landlords. He said he had some in Paris as well and wanted to get up to 50 by th…

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

#300
post #294

I've often thought that municipal regulations would be the best way to get rid of unsavory American corporations. Another one that I'm not surprised has happened yet is a ~$5,000 dollar per day fine for an unattended cash register. That would get rid of CVS and Walgreens overnight.

I’m sure i’m being dense here, but can you please explain the justification for fining a retailer for an unattended cash register? Also what’s unsavory about CVS/Walgreens?

Have you ever been to Walgreens with 10+ registers but just one attendee?
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