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DIY B&B

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Re: DIY B&B

#141

Post by tptacek »

alberich wrote: post #131
larrys wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The government making something illegal really should be the last resort for societal problems." Except that the ease to which people can now rent out an apartment short term has created a situation that was not contemplated by existing laws (or if there were existing laws they were not violated to the extent to make enforcement necessary). Let's take as an example, spam. The founding fathers of the Internet didn't…

I wonder if protecting people from bad neighbours is really the intent here. It looks more like they are trying to shut the short-term rental business down, to please the large hotel business.

I don't think Hilton, Hyatt, Wyndham or Marriott give a shit about Airbnb; they do a full Airbnb valuation of real revenue every other quarter, and the market they service isn't "random places to stay", it's "hotel rooms".

The preponderance of evidence available to message board nerds like us suggests strongly to me that enforcement of these laws is being driven by real complaints.

Re: DIY B&B

#142

Post by geebee »

stephencanon wrote: post #105
rprasad wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once you have children (or nieces/nephews), there is a 100% chance that you will feel differently about short-term rentals. Long-term rentals indicate tenants that are stable enough to at least afford the lease. They are subject to at least some vetting (including background checks) prior to moving in. Short term tenants can be anyone. No background checks are conducted.

There's a 100% chance that I won't. Strangers, even unvetted ones, almost never pose a danger to children. The vast majority of harm done to children is done by friends and family. Having more strangers around makes your kids safer, if anything.

So if you were looking for a babysitter, would you prefer someone randomly selected on airbnb by your downstairs neighbor to someone you've vetted yourself?

Re: DIY B&B

#143

Post by rprasad »

stephencanon wrote: post #105
rprasad wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once you have children (or nieces/nephews), there is a 100% chance that you will feel differently about short-term rentals. Long-term rentals indicate tenants that are stable enough to at least afford the lease. They are subject to at least some vetting (including background checks) prior to moving in. Short term tenants can be anyone. No background checks are conducted.

There's a 100% chance that I won't. Strangers, even unvetted ones, almost never pose a danger to children. The vast majority of harm done to children is done by friends and family. Having more strangers around makes your kids safer, if anything.

Lol. Most harm to anyone, regardless of age, is caused by friends and family, but that is primarily because friends and family have the most opporunities.

If strangers were afforded equal access to your children, the numbers would not be so favorable. Having strangers around does not make your kids safer. At best, your kinds would be just as safe around strangers. At worst, they would be exposed to far more risk.

Re: DIY B&B

#144

Post by josephs »

As an Airbnb host I would add that there's more to renting out your home than just the money. You can really see how you're helping people travel or visit their family or company headquarters (we've had all of these and more). We can give them a great home, show them all the great stores, restaurants, cafes, and see the huge appreciation for this kind of experience. It's life in another city as people in that city live it. Also remember that here in San Francisco almost all of the hotels are downtown or around Union Square so we can bring people to all the other neighborhoods of the city. I've also been an Airbnb guest and it's amazing as well. It's wonderful to support local people and get great advice about where to go. The site has fundamentally changed the way I think about travel.

People have been renting out their homes to visitor for a long time but what Airbnb has done by creating a central marketplace is incredible. It feels as important as Amazon reinventing online purchases. Like many of the great internet companies Airbnb is ruffling a lot of feathers from intrenched businesses and changing the way people think about their private space. What other company has been so successful at fostering connections between people who have never met in the real world?

Re: DIY B&B

#145

Post by ericabiz »

tptacek wrote: post #132
ericabiz wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm female; I rent out my guest room on Airbnb. I have no idea what this has to do with gender. (NB: I own my house, do not live in an area with a HOA, and do not live in a city with an ordinance against short-term rentals.) I've also frequently stayed at other Airbnb properties and always had a pleasant experience. Here's the real issue: So many people say this industry needs regulation. I don't necessarily agree; I…

Municipalities aren't making this unlawful. Running unregulated unlicensed undocumented hotels has been illegal for decades. What you're asking is for people to engage in activism to overturn statutes and codes that every major city already has on the books. What statutes and codes do you propose to replace them with?

That is not what the article said. Here is the direct quote:

"In 2010 New York passed a law requiring a minimum thirty-day stay for any rental in a residential building—in effect making shorter-term rentals, the bulk of the market, illegal."

Re: DIY B&B

#146

Post by walkon »

stephencanon wrote: post #105
rprasad wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once you have children (or nieces/nephews), there is a 100% chance that you will feel differently about short-term rentals. Long-term rentals indicate tenants that are stable enough to at least afford the lease. They are subject to at least some vetting (including background checks) prior to moving in. Short term tenants can be anyone. No background checks are conducted.

There's a 100% chance that I won't. Strangers, even unvetted ones, almost never pose a danger to children. The vast majority of harm done to children is done by friends and family. Having more strangers around makes your kids safer, if anything.

> Strangers, even unvetted ones, almost never pose a danger to children. The vast majority of harm done to children is done by friends and family. Having more strangers around makes your kids safer, if anything.

I hear this a lot and my guess is this is simply a function of how much time family and friends spend with a child (in relative privacy) compared to complete strangers. The surface area of attack is way smaller for random people; they don't have the "reasonable" opportunity.

Re: DIY B&B

#147

Post by zeroonetwothree »

rprasad wrote: post #143
stephencanon wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a 100% chance that I won't. Strangers, even unvetted ones, almost never pose a danger to children. The vast majority of harm done to children is done by friends and family. Having more strangers around makes your kids safer, if anything.

Lol. Most harm to anyone, regardless of age, is caused by friends and family, but that is primarily because friends and family have the most opporunities. If strangers were afforded equal access to your children, the numbers would not be so favorable. Having strangers around does not make your kids safer. At best , your kinds would be just as safe around strangers. At worst, they would be exposed to far more risk.

Where is the data to support your claim? It's possible that strangers are more dangerous on a per opportunity basis, but I suspect it's untrue. For example, children spend about the same time at school as at home (at least on weekdays). Yet abuse is much more frequent at home.

Re: DIY B&B

#148

Post by joebottherobot »

I've been a host since I joined Airbnb as an engineer two years ago. During my interview I had an "AHA!" moment when I saw a letter pinned on the wall. It was from someone affected by the financial crisis who had been able to avoid foreclosure by renting their place on Airbnb. The letter expressed unending gratitude for how Airbnb had helped her through the most difficult time of her life. It completely changed how I thought about the company and ultimately led me to join.

Since then I've realized that the positive impact goes far deeper. For example, as a host I tell every guest about my favorite local establishments. Not only am I exposing my guests to true San Francisco flavor, I'm also helping local businesses that don't traditionally see tourism dollars.

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't hear about how we've helped someone, both travelers and hosts.

Re: DIY B&B

#149

Post by natrius »

rprasad wrote: post #106
danking00 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to focus solely on the issue of "your neighbours didn't sign up for you opening a hotel". Of course my neighbors have a right to not be unreasonably disturbed by my own existence. Most communities have noise violation laws and other citations for creating an undesirable atmosphere. The folks offering short-term rents are not excused from such laws. Why do we need new laws? If your neighbor's short-term tenna…

And what will that solve? In a day or two the tenants will be gone, replaced by other loud assholes. The complaint solves nothing, as the neighbor has no reason to punish the original assholes who have already left. The assholes problem is why we have restrictions against short-term leases in so many areas. (Most such restrictions predate AirBNB, despite what the article would have you believe.)

Don't fines solve this problem? The owner gets fined and either passes on the fine to the renter or pays it and has an incentive to police renters more thoroughly.

Re: DIY B&B

#150

Post by praxulus »

tgrass wrote: post #136
cletus wrote: post #26

I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the negative reaction to this here. The HN demographic is presumably tilted towards young men. What those criticisms seem to be neglecting is that those--particularly for apartment buildings--these temporary visitors impact beyond just you. In Australia, for example, one useful metric used by people when assessing apartment buildings to buy in is to look at the ratio of owner-occup…

1 in 4 homes [EDIT: mortgages] are underwater.[1] If the goal by which we make neighborhood/city wide planning decisions is the ability to "look after" one's property, I propose homeowners are clearly more socially derelict and likely to ignore the community. [only partially sarcastic] 1. http://nationalmortgageprofessional.com/news30381/nearly-24-...

1 in 4 mortgages, which is less than 1 in 4 homes.
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