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Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

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Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#171
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it’s not, it’s number 27. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_and_population_of_Europ...

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?

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The math don't math. It's a drop in the bucket. Since this is HN, I was expecting a little more rigor in proving the math not mathing: how many people can be housed in 15 000[1] + 10 000 houses? How small is the drop and how big is the bucket? From sibling comment, average density is 2.51 people per home * 25k houses which works out to 62 750 housed people out of the 100 000 population growth. If my math is correct…

The 15k houses were built over 10 years, but the 100k growth is over 4 years. So 4/10ths of 15k ~= 9k/47k housed. I think it's fair to say I'm being dramatic by saying it's a drop in the bucket. The action frees up more housing than Barcelona built over the same time period. This is good. However, it's still not a long-term solution. This is a one-time action that when taken, and combined with the housing being built…

I only hope this does not replace one problem with another:

Because Spain's high unemployment, in particular youth unemployment and the construction sector, actions that reduce tourism lead to fewer jobs and less income flowing into the city.

I'm not against the measure (last time in Barcelona I was in a hotel and my friends rented an AirBnB apartment instead; they had fun and I had to move hotel rooms because the guy above me flooded the bathtub), and excessive tourism (Barcelona, Edinburgh, Amsterdam all suffer from it) is annoying even putting housing prices and lack of availability to the side, but I just wonder.

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#173
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And for me, I value predictability and the availability of staff if I need them. I've certainly stayed at many B&Bs that didn't have a 24-hour desk but, by and large, I'm looking to stay at places where I can count on things going smoothly.

Great. Pick hotels. Why do you need to ban airbnbs? As a user of both the presence of airbnbs gives people a choice and sometimes one is clearly better than the other. Problem is those who don't use certain services love banning them and pretend they're fixing some unrelated problem.

It's the locals, not the tourists staying in hotels, that want to ban Airbnbs.

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#174

Good. Tourists should sleep in hotels and locals should sleep in their flats. Platforms like AirBnB only put oil in the fire when it comes to housing crises.

> 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.

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#175

What could possibly go wrong ? My money is on what happens every time governments stick their hairy knuckles in the delicate mechanics of the free market: the economy works around them. IMO, in this case, it will foster a huge black market (because there's strong demand for the stuff) and make a stream of taxable income disappear underground altogether.

>foster a huge black market

any black market feasible to replace airbnb will immediately be discovered by the authorities. The effect will be to greatly reduce short term rental of units that should be dwellings for people who live in those cities. Any system that replaces airbnb illegally will simply have police renting these properties and arresting everyone involved or seizing properties illegally being rented.

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#176
post #55

I honestly think we need: 1. To outlaw AirBnB. Except if people are staying in your house while you're there . Other than that, it should be illegal; 2. 80% Capital Gains Tax on property sales other than your primary residence, withheld at source. 3. Withold 40% of rent income at source, which can only be credited against taxable income in the state and country; and 4. Tax non-primary residences at 2% of their market…

So, basically, make landownership practically illegal except for primary housing?

I'm in favor of Responsible Capitalism. What we're seeing with Airbnb is all but that.

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#177
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They recognize it exists. I'm even hearing podcast ads from Marriot or similar touting how much more reliable they are. AirBnBs I've stayed in the past few years have all been janky, weird, and not really any cheaper than hotels. I don't have to do chores at hotels, and I can always get (and return) the key promptly. I've also been told on several occasions not to let anyone else in the building know I was an AirBnB…

> AirBnBs I've stayed in the past few years have all been janky, weird, and not really any cheaper than hotels And yet, you stay in them.

Not anymore. They were cheaper, and then the prices crept up, and the quality got worse. Classic enshittification. I loved AirBnB 10 years ago, but I'm back to hotels now.

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#179
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting hotels that feel like an AirBnB don't really exist. Even though the professional AirBnB hosts are doing all the functions that hotels do. Why not the reverse.

They do exist and are increasingly common for new hotel builds, at least where I live. Here is an example of one in Montréal that I stayed in last autumn: https://griffintownhotel.com/en-us/apartments/

These still look [1] like artificial sanitized places. People like AirBnB because most of them have a home like feeling. Random decorations, casual atmosphere, etc.

[1] https://griffintownhotel.com/en-us/apartments/comfort

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#180
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 15k houses were built over 10 years, but the 100k growth is over 4 years. So 4/10ths of 15k ~= 9k/47k housed. I think it's fair to say I'm being dramatic by saying it's a drop in the bucket. The action frees up more housing than Barcelona built over the same time period. This is good. However, it's still not a long-term solution. This is a one-time action that when taken, and combined with the housing being built…

I only hope this does not replace one problem with another: Because Spain's high unemployment, in particular youth unemployment and the construction sector, actions that reduce tourism lead to fewer jobs and less income flowing into the city. I'm not against the measure (last time in Barcelona I was in a hotel and my friends rented an AirBnB apartment instead; they had fun and I had to move hotel rooms because the gu…

Tourism is a shit industry. You could mostly annihilate it and replace it with productive things most of the time.
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