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

Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

theolivepress.es

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 375 posts

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#191

Post by cs702 »

LightHugger wrote: post #130
cs702 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[Deleted] See LightHugger's comment and my response below: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40753303 ]

This is red-baiting. Every politician is politically motivated and doesn't actually say anything about why it's bad to ensure people have housing and keep out obnoxious airbnb tourists from residential areas. Spooky scary socialists, send shivers down your spine. Free healthcare will shock your soul, seal your deed tonight.

> This is red-baiting.

Hmm...

Looking at my comment with the benefit of hindsight, I think you're right.

While I still think the mayor's decision is... shortsighted, I've deleted my comment, as I no longer think it contributes much to the discussion.

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#192

Post by abdullahkhalids »

Jaecen wrote: post #81
jfim wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by a hotel that feels like an Airbnb? If you want to stay at a place that has a kitchen, and multiple bedrooms, there are suite hotels (eg. Homewood suites) and extended stay hotels. If you want someone to host you, then a bed and breakfast is another type of accommodation.

It's difficult to quantify. Perhaps it's something as intangible as a space optimized for _living_ (like an apartment) as opposed to a space optimized for _profit_ (like a hotel). Whatever the case, despite the existence of the options you list, Airbnb's are still popular. There's clearly some significant differentiator between them and an Airbnb.

It's definitely the vibe. A lot of it is how the space is decorated. The random assortment of furniture and other stuff in an AirBnB contributes quite a lot to the atmosphere people are looking for.

But there is a psychology to it that is, as you say, hard to pin dow. A hotel that has a random assortment of plates and cutlery in the kitchen (like my last AirBnB did) would feel cheap and tacky. The AirBnB didn't.

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#193

Post by bedobi »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #25

Barcelona has a population of ~1.7 million. The metro area surrounding is ~5.7 million. The metro area grew by ~100k in the past four years. They are freeing up ~10,000 houses over the next four years with this legislation. Barcelona built ~15,000 new properties between 2011 and 2020. The math don't math. It's a drop in the bucket. The entire impact of AirBnB + all housing built in the last decade does not offset the…

dunning kruger in full effect here

prices are set on the margin

this will have an effect on them (and thank you for apparently admitting that possibility after the replies)

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#194

Post by standardUser »

lucasfcosta wrote: post #5

Honest question: does this work? It seems to me that this change will have unintended effects and will fail to produce the desired results. AFAIK rent in NYC hasn’t gone down since they changed their short-term rental regulations. I might be naive, but I’d assume that the solution is to build more housing to increase the supply instead of curbing the demand? Genuinely curious about others’ takes on this.

It certainly works, depending on what your goals are. Locals may appreciate fewer apartments in their building/neighborhood occupied by a rotating assortment of tourists, for example.

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#195

Post by [deleted] »

jupp0r wrote: post #190
toomuchtodo wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hotels go through an approval process to be built, and are regulated (where as AirBnB exists to skirt lodging regulation). Hotels are not competing against residential housing, but AirBnB is.

Of course hotels are competing against residential housing. They take up land that could be used for residential housing instead.

[deleted]

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#196

Post by mattrighetti »

_DeadFred_ wrote: post #174
mattrighetti wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Tourists should sleep in hotels and locals should sleep in their flats. What if we let people decide what they should/n't do with their own property instead?

What if we hold people accountable to the zoning rules in an area they CHOSE to purchase within? You don't want zoning rules, you are free to purchase in a local that doesn't have and/or forbids zoning laws.

That is a good point and I totally agree with that, if you bought a house there for short-term rents then (in this case) you most likely made a risky investment.

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#197

Post by jorvi »

silverpepsi wrote: post #183
jorvi wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with hotel rooms is that they’re more expensive, get much more expensive per additional person, and don’t have the amenities of an appartement. If I’m somewhere with a group for longer than three days, we want to be able to hang somewhere and cook our own food. The only other thing that offers this feature set is private rooms in hostels, and those are both rare and nearly always fully booked. I’m not say…

"we want to be able to hang somewhere" ...just saying because I'm sorry I can't contain myself: This is exactly the use case Airbnb doesn't solve. I fly half-way across the world to meet my parents on vacation and almost without fail the only Airbnb I can find (or all the ones I can find) have a strict rule against guests. Hence I can't have my parents over 10 minutes to drink tea because if the owner, big brother, f…

I mean, that sucks a lot, but I have never ever encountered what you just described. N=1.

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#198

Post by seydor »

lucasfcosta wrote: post #5

Honest question: does this work? It seems to me that this change will have unintended effects and will fail to produce the desired results. AFAIK rent in NYC hasn’t gone down since they changed their short-term rental regulations. I might be naive, but I’d assume that the solution is to build more housing to increase the supply instead of curbing the demand? Genuinely curious about others’ takes on this.

its not as simple , it's a catch-22, if you build a lot of housing the city will lose its appeal , either because of traffic/walkability, because of sprawl, or because of the people it attracts (high housing prices act as a sort of filter to attract more ambitious/adventurous residents).

At its current size the city seems to have hit a sweet spot of desirability which caused prices to skyrocket, and it brings a lot of tourist money to the same residents who are protesting.

I think we need to shift from simplistic housing availability calculations to more broadly considering the motivations of people

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#199

Post by jvican »

FactKnower69 wrote: post #171
blahedo wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really a different notion of "density" than the gp is talking about---it averages over the whole country, including a lot of very empty areas.

Wrong again. Why are France and Germany 2x as dense as Spain and the UK 3x as dense as Spain then?

It is most representative to look at the list of densest European cities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_Union_cities_...

As you see, Spain has 12 cities among the top 38 cities in Europe. L'Hospitalet (an urban centre close to Barcelona) is densest than Paris.

Post reply on HN