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Airbnb raises violent crime rates in cities as residents are pushed out

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261–270 of 337 posts

Re: Airbnb raises violent crime rates in cities as residents are pushed out

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Illegal Hotels" This always makes me laugh. A lot of hotel regulation was written with fire safety in mind (large building with a lot of small rooms in it and a high number of occupants). But AirBnBs... are just regular apartments so they don't break the fire safety rules (if the appartment is zoned for two occupants, really you aren't breaking any laws by housing two guests). The rest is simply NIMBY and cities try…

Allowing landlords to buy up housing supply to rent by the day drives up prices for the 90% who need a house to live in them not profit from them. It's disadvagous for society to allow it. Society doesn't have to let you live your life at everyone else's expense. If I had to guess the down votes are either for lack of awareness, facile dismissal, supreme self confidence not matched by good grasp of the topic or the o…

And the price to rent plumets when there is a glut of houses up for rent (via AirBNB or not). That this doesn't happen speaks more to the lack of supply than anything else.

Govenments have failed their constituents by not provisioning adequate land for new housing, and not buying up abandonned or severely run-down areas to redevelop.

Our populations have expanded greatly in the last decades, yet housing supply has not kept up at all!

Re: Airbnb raises violent crime rates in cities as residents are pushed out

#262
post #4

Maybe criminals like staying at Airbnb. They have the cash after all and Airbnb can easily be used to hide ones identity.

Have you ever used AirBnb?

It is not possible to be anonymous in AirBnB, to rent a flat they will ask you for multiple ID documents so they could confirm who you are, furthermore there is scoring system so anything fishy about guest or host will stay in the permanent record. I have used AirBnb a lot across the world, and overall I have not had any significantly bad experience.

Re: Airbnb raises violent crime rates in cities as residents are pushed out

#263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Allowing landlords to buy up housing supply to rent by the day drives up prices for the 90% who need a house to live in them not profit from them. It's disadvagous for society to allow it. Society doesn't have to let you live your life at everyone else's expense. If I had to guess the down votes are either for lack of awareness, facile dismissal, supreme self confidence not matched by good grasp of the topic or the o…

> Allowing landlords to buy up housing supply to rent by the day drives up prices for the 90% who need a house to live in them not profit from them Notice how the conversation is always about a limited supply; never about how the cities could remove barriers for larger, denser constructions. Wonder why that is.

We should fix the other problems but if we fail to or in the meantime we ought to prevent the existing problems from being exacerbated by Airbnb.

Re: Airbnb raises violent crime rates in cities as residents are pushed out

#264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tourists are people too. This really seems like an extreme version of nativism.

Is it really right to equate a tourist's interest in accommodation with a resident's interest in a strong community?

Yeah, like, residents never travel. Tourists come from Mars. /s

Why ban just AirBnB and not Waze for bringing unwanted traffic in previously quiet neighborhoods?

Re: Airbnb raises violent crime rates in cities as residents are pushed out

#265
As AirBnB has impact on well establish Hotel business what is likelihood that this study and later laws are sponsored by loosing party? It is not uncommon for them to lobby to pass additional laws so they can prevent further loses/increase revenue.

Re: Airbnb raises violent crime rates in cities as residents are pushed out

#266
post #33

A common quote on HN (and one that I firmly believe in) is: > It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. This so applies to AirBnB. It's not salary per se but those that benefit by renting out units or those for whom this has saved them money I've found typically get so defensive about AirBnB to the point of calling detractors NIMBYists and the like. I'…

> But AirBnB is clearly used to create illegal hotels and that's the problem. The solution is increased enforcement of the laws that make these illegal. The incentives aren't difficult: Create an anonymous tip line to report illegal AirBnB operations that violate zoning regulations. Have submitters provide the street address and URL of the AirBnB to make it easy. The person operating the AirBnB (or owner of the house…

I think criminalising what you do to with your own property is slippery slope to no property ownership.

Re: Airbnb raises violent crime rates in cities as residents are pushed out

#267
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But AirBnB is clearly used to create illegal hotels and that's the problem. The solution is increased enforcement of the laws that make these illegal. The incentives aren't difficult: Create an anonymous tip line to report illegal AirBnB operations that violate zoning regulations. Have submitters provide the street address and URL of the AirBnB to make it easy. The person operating the AirBnB (or owner of the house…

> The person submitting the tip about an illegal AirBnB receives 25% of the fine. I feel like the whole "rat on your neighbors for money" thing has a lot of negative unintended consequences.

Yeah I imagine it could be the new swatting. Don't like your neighbors (as in, your actual neighbors, who aren't running an illegal hotel)? Anonymously report that there's an AirBnB in their property, and watch as the cops show up and tell your neighbors to pack their bags and find a real hotel.

Re: Airbnb raises violent crime rates in cities as residents are pushed out

#268
post #133
post #40

As this topic becomes more and more mainstream, I look forward to the numerous Twitter posts sure to come from Airbnb employees about the taxing social implications that come with working at Airbnb, how it weighs on their conscious, and and their ultimate decision to follow what’s right and leave. But only after their RSU’s have vested, of course. More seriously, I’ve been very disappointed with Airbnb recently. I sp…

I think AirBNB itself is at fault for the price inflation. They advise their hosts as to market prices using some sort of calculator (source: friend who runs an AirBNB) and the output seems to be absurd, but when everyone in a market follows it, it becomes the market. AirBNB is relying on the idea that it is big enough that the other guys (VRBO, etc) will follow suit since everyone wins. I have been shocked recently…

If people are willing to pay, it becomes the price, and people are definitely paying. Anecdotally from my friends who host, increasing prices leads to more 5 star reviews and fewer incidents as you get more affluent guests.

Re: Airbnb raises violent crime rates in cities as residents are pushed out

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. The whole concept of residential property as an investment must go. I wonder if enough AirBnB in the area could actually drive property cost down, because nobody would like to live there long term and then essentially wiping off all the profits people made by renting out. In the end only the AirBnB would really profit. It's a business model clearly bases on a loophole and should be closed. If someone wants t…

> The whole concept of residential property as an investment must go. One of the major "lessons" of the famous book Rich Dad, Poor Dad was that wise wealthy people view housing as an asset and investment, whereas poor and middle class people merely view it as an expense. This thinking is now deeply ingrained in our culture.

I read that book a very long time ago and don't remember the part you reference, but from the perspective of someone who wants to live in a house, that house should be considered a liability, not an asset/investment.

But sure, owning housing that you don't intend to live in (and intend to rent out, or renovate and sell) is an investment.

The problem (at least in the US) is that everyone (of any economic means) seems to think of their primary home as an investment, which is in part why our housing market is so distorted. Everyone believes they're entitled to sell their house for significantly more than they paid for it, which is weird: land may increase in value for a variety of reasons, but houses just get older and crappier over time, and should only drop in value (with some bumps back up for major renovations).

Re: Airbnb raises violent crime rates in cities as residents are pushed out

#270
post #214
post #40

As this topic becomes more and more mainstream, I look forward to the numerous Twitter posts sure to come from Airbnb employees about the taxing social implications that come with working at Airbnb, how it weighs on their conscious, and and their ultimate decision to follow what’s right and leave. But only after their RSU’s have vested, of course. More seriously, I’ve been very disappointed with Airbnb recently. I sp…

I think a lot about cleaning solutions because of this. You can't have shortstay accommodation without cleaning, you can't currently clean without human involvement, labour costs, etc. $100 works if you're exit-cleaning after a three month rental, but every 1-2 nights, it's insane. And Airbnb properties don't have the efficiencies of hotel cleaning teams (who will have targets/policies like 20 minutes to clean a room…

Hotels often use a technique called triple sheeting which uses 3 flat sheets: one goes on the mattress cover to simulate a fitted sheet, one goes between the guest and duvet, and one goes on top of the duvet.

Hotels normally don’t wash the comforter between each guest (gross), and only wash the 3 sheets which are quick to strip and replace for housekeepers.

The downside is that for stays longer than a few days the two sheets covering the duvet tend to come apart. So this is better for short stays which most hotels specialize in.

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