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Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

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Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I did. The whole point is that I wasn't just a one-or-two-day ghost. I lived in these places for as I said 3-6 months (in one case almost a year). So I knew my neighbors, and treated them as I would neighbors in any other apartment I rented as a regular tenant. [edit] I should just add that I'm as embarrassed to make noise or screw with anyone's living space as a homeowner as I was as a tenant. I could make $400…

What it is that leads you to believe the 3-6 months thing is so significant? There are (a very small proportion of) AirBnB guests who are awful. There are (a very small proportion of) longer-term tenants who are awful. At least with AirBnB, the awful guests are gone after a couple of nights. I know some AirBnBs are used as party destinations, and that's different -- but it's a problem with those hosts, not with the p…

If you’ve ever lived next to an active Airbnb I don’t think you’d ask this question. The issues with an endless stream of short term guests are like in your face obvious.

You’re getting people who are in a leisure situation basically 100% of the time. Your normal neighbors aren’t like this.

Even just the transitions are disruptive. Picture a European couple unable to figure out how to open the door with 4 suitcases completely blocking the entrance to your building and making it impossible to go in and out every single time you come home, for one highly specific example plucked from the real world.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will be interesting to see what happens in Amsterdam over the next few years since they clamped down hard on AirBnB. Hosts now have to be officially registered with the city. AirBnB lost something like 90% of their hosts overnight!

Many major cities are clamping down hard. Mayors and politicians are under much more pressure from locals to stop their cities turning into, well, Amsterdam. Tourism is fine, but it has increasingly come at the cost of locals.

> Tourism is fine

Well... a moderate amount of tourism is fine, even beneficial; but excessive tourism in any given location becomes a blight. Airbnb has contributed to that, by facilitating short-term profits for "hosts" and the company and ignoring the negative impact.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#403
post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Just today in the office there was a coworker who was unfamiliar with a particular internal tool. He asked me, I walked to his desk, and pointed out the couple of buttons he needed to click in that internal tool. The whole exchange finished in one minute. After that minute I went back to coding. I stayed in my flow. But if this request for help arrived via group chat, I wouldn't have bothered to help. It was…

Sounds like something that could be solved by better documentation. I work for a fully remote company, and better documentation is definitely something I've noticed here compared to on-site roles.

No post body was provided.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a legal loophole for digital nomads. If I am connected to my work via a VPN, I am technically still working in the country of employment. I am not producing any commercial output in the country I am staying that I or my employer benefits from beneficially. I am 100% confident this has been reviewed by well paid lawyers at AirBnb who have zero sense of adventure, and that this is all water tight.

I believe that’s not what government laws says (for any country). Someone can correct me if I’m wrong but pretty much all countries/states consider you working there if you are physically present there. Your VPN or where your “commercial output” is, is not considered a factor at all by governments.

Most countries only care if you are taking a job that a local could have done. That is clearly not the case if you work remotely. If anything you are increasing local jobs by paying for your accomodation and food.

Once again this has been reviewed by laywers at different companies who have deemed this risk to be acceptable.

There might be countries that will arrest you if you read your corporate mail while on holidays, however, these generally not on the green list of safe countries to travel too.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#405
post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What it is that leads you to believe the 3-6 months thing is so significant? There are (a very small proportion of) AirBnB guests who are awful. There are (a very small proportion of) longer-term tenants who are awful. At least with AirBnB, the awful guests are gone after a couple of nights. I know some AirBnBs are used as party destinations, and that's different -- but it's a problem with those hosts, not with the p…

If you’ve ever lived next to an active Airbnb I don’t think you’d ask this question. The issues with an endless stream of short term guests are like in your face obvious. You’re getting people who are in a leisure situation basically 100% of the time. Your normal neighbors aren’t like this. Even just the transitions are disruptive. Picture a European couple unable to figure out how to open the door with 4 suitcases c…

Exactly. It's not even that the people mean to be disrespectful, they just don't understand that they're talking loudly 6" from your bedroom window, and this happens every day. Sometimes I used to live in motels where I would wake up every morning to people dragging their luggage out. I used to rent apartments. Finally I bought a house. And now... it's like I'm back in the motel.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in a city that is a major tourist destination worldwide. Tourism has always been a blessing and a curse; shops always suffered a pressure to become tourist oriented; some big buildings were converted to hotels. With AirBnB the problem has expanded massively. I cannot find a 3-room office that is not miles away from the city center because everything that size is an AirBnB. An employee I just hired that moved h…

Never heard of a landlord who’d rather have a string of short term rentals than one continuous long term rental unless there’s some renter protection law that makes you an effective permanent tenant. Just rent through Airbnb and then talk to the guy about a normal lease. If you want, text me where you are, I’ll put up $10k for a bet and then if I can find you a 3 room office, you give me $10k. If I can’t, I’ll give y…

This isn’t a Vegas poker table. Making prop bets for more money than a lot of people here can make in a year is rather uncouth.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#407
post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's almost impossible to purchase a house if you live and work in a large city now. Airbnb "hosts" use their ever growing stream of reverse mortgages to purchase more and more single family homes at cash offers over what others can afford.

Do you think this is an primarily caused by Airbnb?

In tourist heavy cities like Barcelona and Lisbon, yes. I've seen it first hand.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not an immigration/tax lawyer and could be completely wrong but if you're from EU/US/UK/AUS etc I'm fairly sure you can work in another one of those countries for up to 90 days (and sometimes upto 183) without paying tax there or getting a work visa - as long as you're still resident and being paid in your home country under the Visa Waiver program. I've worked in NY offices and got paid in UK (admittedly a while…

This only works if you are holder of passport of the origin country. As a third world country national, I cannot legally work anywhere except the country I got my work visa. PS: Even if company is multinational corporation.

Laws are still written for those doing manual labor.

What's the difference if I do some work in the evening at home or during my holiday in e.g. Greece?

The only added cost in given country is energy. Problems start to appear if I get sick, but that should be on myself - and in most cases (for EU citizen) it is most appropriate to return home to cure/hospitalize (unless it is something needing immediate help).

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of founders and their friends are using the office as a replacement for a healthier separate social circle and social life that they lack (a lot of people lack that, and they do too), so for them they're really just hanging out and like the potential for “increased collaboration” for that reason

(1) Healthiest = great social circle at work that bleeds into social circle out of work (2) Less healthy = great social circle at work, separate great social circle outside of work (3) Even less healthy = no social circle at work (just a job), great social circle outside work (4) Worse = great social circle at work, no social circle outside of work (I never seen this situation. If you have a great social circle at wo…

I have nothing in common with most of my coworkers. We're all at different ages with different cultural backgrounds, and a split of men and women.

Work is not a place to make friends.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#410
post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think everyone wins here. except for the cities flooded by tech workers that do not belong to the community. Like it's happening to Barcelona.

Which community is that?

Ever heard of locals?

You can't imagine how much better Rome has been in these last two years without Americans coming to colonize our historical districts.

It's not entirely Americans fault, they do not belong here, don't know the language, the traditions, but they gather together all in the same place and suddenly it's not Rome anymore and obviously prices skyrocket up to the point that locals can't afford to live there anymore, after generations many have been forced to leave their family houses.

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