Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras • Hacker News Board

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#411

Post by squokko » Tue, Mar 12, 2024, 6:01 AM UTC

mlrtime wrote: post #401

scarface_74 wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that’s how it should be - a hotel is a business in a commercial zone with professional management, pays taxes and doesn’t negatively affect home affordability

And why shouldn't I be able to rent out my apartment for a week if I go on vacation? This was supposed to be the intent of Airbnb and is still a valuable resource if available.

Why shouldn't your neighbors be able to use their powers as voters to lobby their government to pass laws preventing their quiet suburban street from being used as a distributed hotel?

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#412

Post by squokko » Tue, Mar 12, 2024, 6:03 AM UTC

ransom1538 wrote: post #23

endisneigh wrote: post #17

In my experience Airbnb isn’t even cheaper, just has more “interesting” housing available. Back to the topic - removing listings isn’t a sufficient enough punishment imho. And how would you even prove it from the guests side? Take a picture I suppose? But how do you stop bad actors? Not sure what the correct solution is. Someone who wants to spy can purchase a spy camera which is very abundant these days.

"In my experience Airbnb isn’t even cheaper, just has more “interesting” housing available." I still, can not wrap my head around this. The idea behind airbnb was to rent out unused parts of your house. You STILL can not do this. Motel 6 is cheaper all day everyday. I will keep giving my $80 to Motel 6, but, I KNOW there is someone out there that has a room and needs $80. The original problem still exists. I can't pa…

Is it so surprising that Motel 6 is more operationally efficient? That Sarah needs more money than Motel 6 to allow a unknown stranger into her living space and to clean up after them, rather than a gigantic hotel chain with decades of experience and thousands of locations?

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#413

Post by cryptoxchange » Tue, Mar 12, 2024, 6:15 AM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #365

downWidOutaFite wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would the math be different for apartment buildings? They also appreciate and they usually have better accountants to make sure no money is left on the table if it's available.

Apartment buildings get handled in a business-like manner, but are also apartments (which have downsides for the renters). My theory is that single family homes get rented below what it costs to rent them and the landlords make it up via appreciation. It's pretty obvious that there are places like this, where the rental prices are substantially below 1% of the purchase price (one of the "rule of thumbs").

I think it’s safe to call this a fact in markets like the Bay Area.

In college three friends and I rented a 1000sqft 2 bed 2 bath apartment with one parking spot for $X, then the next year a 2000sqft 4 bed 4 bath 2 car garage for $1.15X. Per zillow, the owner was renting it to us for 0.3% of the purchase price. The only way for them not to be losing their shirt is crazy appreciation.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#414

Post by klausa » Tue, Mar 12, 2024, 6:18 AM UTC

TulliusCicero wrote: post #409

ghaff wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suite hotels have all that except maybe the washing machine and are often pretty comparable in price to "regular" hotel rooms. Those tend to be my preference although I use the refrigerator more than the rest of the kitchen.

> Suite hotels have all that except maybe the washing machine and are often pretty comparable in price to "regular" hotel rooms. I have not found this to be the case at all. Getting a suite with a kitchen usually involves paying a large premium to a regular hotel room.

They don't mean upgrading to a suite at a "regular" hotel; there are chains specializing in renting out "home-style" rooms ("extended-stay" is the industry term, I believe), and I've seen them referred to suite hotels sometimes.

The biggest chains have these sub-brands in the space, based off three minutes of googling/wikiing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residence_Inn_by_Marriott

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staybridge_Suites

https://www.hyatt.com/development/ourbrands/hyatthouse

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homewood_Suites_by_Hilton

I never stayed at one, so can't comment how accurate the OP was re/price.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#415

Post by tareqak » Tue, Mar 12, 2024, 6:23 AM UTC

shagie wrote: post #271

kibwen wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they took the time to implement the feature and actively decided to be shitty to their customers when they are given the choice Ah, but companies have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to be as shitty to their customers as they can get away with.

To help put an end to this meme... Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. - https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/13-354 > While it is certainly true that a central objective of for-profit corporations is to make money, modern corporate law does not require for-profit corporations to pursue profit at the expense of everything else, and many do not do so. For-profit corporations, with ownership approval, support…

It would be nice for me as customer to see what sorts of objectives any given company values: a sort of barcode scanner / brand scanner that travels up the tree of parent companies and returns the objectives for each one.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#416

Post by brazzy » Tue, Mar 12, 2024, 6:24 AM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #406

xboxnolifes wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it'll be cheaper to make most meals yourself. Especially since the imagined price doesn't tend to include rent, kitchen labor, service staff labor, or depreciating costs of kitchen appliances, which all go into the price of restaurant meals.

I'm living in a house anyway. I'm not paying myself. Appliances last decades. It would cost me money to drive to a restaurant. With rare exceptions (e.g. high end kitchen you don't use much and eating out really cheaply) there's no world where the costs of preparing meals at home are higher than eating out every meal.

The point is that many people expect them to be priced similarly because they think of the ingredients as the main costs (because those are the only costs they actually see when cooking for themselves), which they are not.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#417

Post by RussianCow » Tue, Mar 12, 2024, 6:24 AM UTC

kshacker wrote: post #410

mlrtime wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Paris tried to curb this buy allowing Airbnb, but you can only rent out max 50% of the year. This makes it so local owners can make some money, but corporations wouldn't be able to get the yield they need at 50% occupancy.

And did it work? I ask because corporates usually figure out how to use the rules to their advantage and I am now trying to sniff through how they would play this.

Yeah, doesn't this just end up increasing short term rental prices across the board? It's not like there is a shortage of demand for lodging in Paris.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#418

Post by RussianCow » Tue, Mar 12, 2024, 6:26 AM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #211

adolph wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people don't know how to price rentals And "helping" them is a lawsuit magnet: Big landlords are colluding to raise rents, D.C. lawsuit alleges https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38155840

If I had a group of graduate students at my beck and call I'd love to try to factor out what effect single-family rentals have had on the rental market in toto - because once you remove appreciation, they're often losing money each month, which means they're subsidizing the renters (and willing to do so because they're making it up on highly-leveraged appreciation).

> because once you remove appreciation, they're often losing money each month

I'm curious if you have a source for this? Intuitively, it makes sense, but I haven't actually seen any figures that support this. Although my guess is that data would be hard to come by.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#419

Post by al_borland » Tue, Mar 12, 2024, 6:30 AM UTC

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote: post #294

endisneigh wrote: post #17

In my experience Airbnb isn’t even cheaper, just has more “interesting” housing available. Back to the topic - removing listings isn’t a sufficient enough punishment imho. And how would you even prove it from the guests side? Take a picture I suppose? But how do you stop bad actors? Not sure what the correct solution is. Someone who wants to spy can purchase a spy camera which is very abundant these days.

Airbnb has a normal fridge, a microwave, a washing machine, a dishwasher and 700-100 sq ft area. A similarly priced hotel room will have 250 sq ft area and none of the above amenities.

This all depends on the AirBnB. I stayed in one in Tokyo that had a kitchen and washing machine, but no TV. I had never stayed anywhere without a TV before (hotel or AirBnB), so I suppose it’s my fault for assuming it would have on. I was very disappointed, as I was planning to watch at least some Japanese TV in the evenings and instead just had to watch whatever was on my iPad. With a hotel, especially bigger chains, there are certain things a person can count on. With AirBnB I feel like I need to be a detective and keep a list of all my requirements, even ones I thought were default standards.

Also, at the Tokyo AirBnB, once I got there I found a sign in the bathroom that essentially told me AirBnB wasn’t allowed in the building, so if anyone asked who I was, I had to lie and give the prepared backstory. I’ve never had to lie to skirt the law/rules when staying at a hotel.

My next trip I’m staying in a hotel, and it has a kitchen as well (with a sink and range), so I can go to the store and prepare food if I want. It’s not 1,000sqft, but how much space do I really need for a couple weeks? My goal is to get out and do things, not stay inside the whole time. I’ve also had many hotels with a fridge and a microwave. The fridge might not be full size, but again, for a week or two, how much space does a person really need?

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#420

Post by madaxe_again » Tue, Mar 12, 2024, 6:31 AM UTC

klinquist wrote: post #266

mholt wrote: post #22

I'm worried this ban will only affect honest hosts. Anyway, what Airbnb should really ban is hosts charging a mandatory cleaning fee when also requiring their guests to do the cleaning. We just stayed at one this weekend, and like almost all our previous bookings, the host asked us to: - Take off all bedding and towels and start a load of laundry - Do all the dishes and start the dishwasher (but required to hand-wash…

I'm a host. I charge a $200 cleaning fee and my cleaners charge me $250, so I lose money on cleaning. I ask guests to: * Strip the beds (otherwise, I find that people re-make beds and it's hard to tell if they have been slept in), * Load and start the dishwasher (the dishwasher takes 4 hrs, and the cleaners travel to my remote house, and I want to make sure they can finish in about that time) * Take the trash down to…

I’m a host, two properties in the U.K. I charge no cleaning fee. I don’t ask guests to do anything other than lock the door behind them when they leave.

It’s really simple to manage - price it in.

Our nightly rate is our nightly rate is our nightly rate. We have a two night minimum on our city property, so it doesn’t end up astronomical - and when we have single nights spare we open them up at a higher price point. On the other property, we have a one week minimum, as it’s in the countryside, larger, and cleaning costs more.

We also price in stuff like welcome champagne, tea, coffee, cooking supplies, firewood, you name it - we give our guests everything they would have at home, and enough to throw together a meal on their first evening if they get in late.

Our margin is >50% on both.

Price it in.