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Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

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Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#351
post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You are certainly no longer allowed to have AirBnBs for the sole purpose of renting out to AirBnb. That's a ridiculous requirement. Owning real estate for the sole purpose of renting has been an income source for ever. Just because Airbnb exploded this practice in popularity doesn't give governments the right to say what purpose owners can use their property for. If Airbnb is causing issues, then address those spec…

Governments tell people what their property can be used for all the time. Even laissez faire countries like America use things like 'zoning' and 'setbacks' to control what you're allowed to do on your own property.

Well, sure, but you bought property in those areas depending on if you wanted to run a business or use it as a residence. Maybe there should be a separate residence-as-business zone used for Airbnbs.

Banning short-term rental properties feels like a quick bandaid to gain political points, not a solution to a market with a large demand.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#352

Sooo.. w/o getting into my history too deeply, my ex and I left the US in 2006 and worked freelance/remote. Wired did an article about us in 2008 living in a solar van when that was, like, unheard of. It seems like every few years a new batch of people want to try this approach, and it's always popular with the press to write about it. Sometimes it works out. I think it's a great way to live, and it teaches you a lot…

Solar van sounds nice, except if you're well over 6ft tall :/

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in a city that is a major tourist destination worldwide. Tourism has always been a blessing and a curse; shops always suffered a pressure to become tourist oriented; some big buildings were converted to hotels. With AirBnB the problem has expanded massively. I cannot find a 3-room office that is not miles away from the city center because everything that size is an AirBnB. An employee I just hired that moved h…

Never heard of a landlord who’d rather have a string of short term rentals than one continuous long term rental unless there’s some renter protection law that makes you an effective permanent tenant. Just rent through Airbnb and then talk to the guy about a normal lease. If you want, text me where you are, I’ll put up $10k for a bet and then if I can find you a 3 room office, you give me $10k. If I can’t, I’ll give y…

>Never heard of a landlord who’d rather have a string of short term rentals than one continuous long term rental unless there’s some renter protection law that makes you an effective permanent tenant.

or unless you can make significantly more money as a short term rental. Also if you can theoretically hide your earnings (although I guess you can't most places anymore)

also, I believe most EU countries have some form of renter protection laws.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#354
post #228

> While you’ll be responsible for getting proper work authorization, we’re actively partnering with local governments to make it easier for more people to travel and work around the world. Today, 20+ countries offer remote work visas, and more are in the works. While working from different locations isn’t possible for everyone, I hope everyone can benefit from this flexibility when the time is right. I think currentl…

I don’t think they even try to get work visas. A lot of countries have tourist visas up to 90 days. And if you go to a country to work there, but are not paid by a local company, you are basically a tourist. I think this is what AirBnB are doing. A lot of countries have a requirement for you to reside in it for at least half the year to be able to be taxed there and be considered an employee. A lot of countries allow…

> I don’t think they even try to get work visas. A lot of countries have tourist visas up to 90 days. And if you go to a country to work there, but are not paid by a local company, you are basically a tourist.

this has been discussed to death on DN forums. Basically yes you're breaking the law but if you don't get caught no one will know. Some people don't like taking this risk while some don't mind.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#355

https://www.remote.com/ is a proxy company with subsidiaries in all countries allowing you to hire employees legally in any country. I discover it the other day, it's a game changer for remote international teams.

Beware, I can't speak for this exact one, but in my (pretty significant) experience these companies take a 35-45% cut of your gross income.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of founders and their friends are using the office as a replacement for a healthier separate social circle and social life that they lack (a lot of people lack that, and they do too), so for them they're really just hanging out and like the potential for “increased collaboration” for that reason

(1) Healthiest = great social circle at work that bleeds into social circle out of work (2) Less healthy = great social circle at work, separate great social circle outside of work (3) Even less healthy = no social circle at work (just a job), great social circle outside work (4) Worse = great social circle at work, no social circle outside of work (I never seen this situation. If you have a great social circle at wo…

> (1) Healthiest = great social circle at work that bleeds into social circle out of work

Lol, in my experience mixing groups of friends has rarely been a good idea.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#357

>Most companies don’t do this because of the mountain of complexities with taxes, payroll, and time zone availability, but I hope we can open-source a solution so other companies can offer this flexibility as well. I think this is a genius growth play for Airbnb. Make it easier for _other_ companies to operate in a similar way so that _their_ employees can travel and live in an... Airbnb! Next, they should lobby to g…

I'm not an immigration/tax lawyer and could be completely wrong but if you're from EU/US/UK/AUS etc I'm fairly sure you can work in another one of those countries for up to 90 days (and sometimes upto 183) without paying tax there or getting a work visa - as long as you're still resident and being paid in your home country under the Visa Waiver program. I've worked in NY offices and got paid in UK (admittedly a while…

In the EU and FoM countries you're still supposed to pay social contributions where you work. There are many complex rules for people who are regularly on the road (like truck drivers, artists on tour) and dispatched workers, but as the average tech worker you can definitely get your employer in trouble if you work more than 20% outside the country of employment. That's why cross-border commuters can't work from home more than one day of the week, technically.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#358
post #128

Ive worked for a coding bootcamp since before covid. We used to be in person only and Ive gotten to see the ups and downs of the full-remote transition for at this point hundreds of jr devs entering the field. Long story short everything I thought would get negative blowback or go up in flames didnt. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and it never does. Our students work through around 1000 hours of computer s…

I know someone who became mentally ill when the bootcamp switched from in-person to remote and had enough stress to develop schizophrenia from the stresses of trying to apply for jobs remotely and alone in 2020.

There's downsides to both. When schools switched to remote I was able to travel home and study next to my partner, instead of being in a depressed state on-campus.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What?

As far as I can understand it: 1 - I'm proud of having cheated Airbnb out of their commission when helping me find housing so I could live like a hipster 2 - I hate living next to Airbnb hipsters Needless to say: not a lot of coherent thought in that comment...

I mean, AirBnb helped destroy housing for citizens where I live. It's now almost impossible for a local to find decent housing in my city. I know this is also fault of the administration and the landlords themselves, but I won't certainly ever feel any pity for this multinational.

AirBnb is basically another mean of accruing wealth in the hands of landowners, while people who don't own anything are now in an even harder situation, so I'm happy someone is stealing something from AirBnb, they negatively "disrupted" the lives of milions in order to create their market.

If you only have positive opinions about AirBnb, congratulations, you live in a bubble.

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