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A Warning for Airbnb Hosts

nytimes.com

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Re: A Warning for Airbnb Hosts

#181

Post by aba_sababa »

danso wrote: post #129
bcoates wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The NYT does have a hate-on for AirBnB. I'm not sure if it's because it's stepping on some toes that have influence there or if they're just not glamored by the new tech aspect like everyone else. Or maybe AirBnB is similar enough to craigslist and newspapers hate craigslist because it killed print.

What's with the need to see a conspiracy in everything? Is it so hard to see how housing laws, which NYC residents LOVE when it comes to rent control and tenant rights, inherently conflict with the freedom for a renter to rent out the apartment for a profit? I'm all for critical thinking, but not when it flouts occam's Razor just for the hell of it.

I agree in theory, but PG posted some pretty damning stuff about the reach of PR in the news, and I want to know how far that reach goes down. In this article, the author specifically says, "yo, you shouldn't airbnb."

That's a bit more than just reporting the facts.

Re: A Warning for Airbnb Hosts

#182

Post by bcoates »

aba_sababa wrote: post #181
danso wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's with the need to see a conspiracy in everything? Is it so hard to see how housing laws, which NYC residents LOVE when it comes to rent control and tenant rights, inherently conflict with the freedom for a renter to rent out the apartment for a profit? I'm all for critical thinking, but not when it flouts occam's Razor just for the hell of it.

I agree in theory, but PG posted some pretty damning stuff about the reach of PR in the news, and I want to know how far that reach goes down. In this article, the author specifically says, "yo, you shouldn't airbnb." That's a bit more than just reporting the facts.

Hometown bias against a weird foreign service contrary to local norms is a pretty reasonable explanation. Sometimes I forget what the NY in NYT stands for :)

Re: A Warning for Airbnb Hosts

#183

Post by tomkarlo »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #158
tomkarlo wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small operators are generally regulated as well, at least in most places. There were small lodging operators (1-5 rooms) long before there were huge hotels. If you run a bed & breakfast (<10 rooms, generally) you are still subject to regulations that a private homeowner would not have to comply with.

It's not just about size. Yes, if someone buys an apartment with three rooms and rents out two of them on a continual basis they should be treated as a hotel. But if they rent out a room on occasion then it's not the same situation.

As a customer, should I expect less protection and safety because of how often the room is rented when I'm not there?

Unfortunately, it's impractical if not impossible to regulate behavior based on _frequency_ unless you're going to continually monitor the activity.

Re: A Warning for Airbnb Hosts

#184

Post by tomkarlo »

malandrew wrote: post #165
tomkarlo wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except they do exist in most places, in one form or another. Can you point to some places that don't require hotel operators to submit to some kind of licensing / regulation? These laws aren't new - UK lodging laws go back several hundred years.

If they go back several hundred years then they probably have more to do with rent-seeking than consumer protection, and if that is in fact the motivation for their existence, then they should be eliminated.

Are you saying that based on any fact, or just a personal bias? Do you have any familiarity with fire laws or lodging regulations?

Re: A Warning for Airbnb Hosts

#185

Post by tomkarlo »

anigbrowl wrote: post #118
jrockway wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, he killed someone. That's just plain negligent.

It's criminal because he disregarded traffic signals (I believe he recently pleasded guilty BTW). It's also negligent when he gets sued by the decedent's relatives in civil court. That's not the app's fault, but it's not the only case where people have got into accidents because they were pursuing the status of fastest rider on a particular route. Where rewarding people (even intangibly) encourages them to push up ag…

It's the app equivalent of a "cannonball run" - a race to see who can get from point A to point B as fast as possible. Unless you have some way to ensure participants obey traffic regulations (and I don't think anything exists at present), if you base winning on minimizing time you are arguably inducing people to break rules, since that's almost mandatory to win.

There's still some rallies around that run on public streets, but usually winning is based on _matching_ some target time, rather than having the shortest time overall.

Re: A Warning for Airbnb Hosts

#186

Post by 001sky »

tptacek wrote: post #175
001sky wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they are professional real-estate investors. your analogy is like saying invetment bankers and vc's need protection from their clients or entreprenuers. while they do need (and are entitled to) equal protection to support bilateral contract, its not clear they need protection laws in the sense of "consumer protection"==which is protection given in the public interest to allow 'naive' parties to trust 'sophisticated'…

That's an embarrassingly reductionist viewpoint; it's hard to think of a profession that can't be considered a professional investor of some form or another. What's embarrassing about it is that you obviously don't grok the difference between investors and speculators. An investor is someone who spends time and money on something in the hopes that its growth or development or even upkeep will eventually provide a ret…

I think you are clearly mis-reading what I am saying. Laws apply (thanks to the constitution) to all people individually, equally. That being said, there are levels of abstractions about why laws exists (ie, public policy rationales). Most rules are not written to tilt outcomes toward the more sophisticated, specialized market participants (although undoubtidly some are in practice if not theory). On the contrary: If information assymetry exists, they exist more often to obviate it (ie, the general securities laws). None of this has to do with what you seem fixated on (grok the difference between investors and speculators).
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