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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

#561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is, in my opinion, a massive and near total loss for all the renters, first-time homebuyers, existing families, and the sense of community in areas affected by AirBnB's cancerous growth.

Why?

because supply and demand matter, and units that are AirBnB'ed are taken off the market for long term rentals, leading to rents for locals rising higher than trend. Even given that in the perfect economy construction would keep up with demand, there is a ~5-10 year lag between demand signal and correction in construction (prices rise, new construction breaks ground, new construction opens, new constructions absorbs marginal demand, filtering from less expensive units to more expensive units, rent prices stabilize/decrease). 5-10 years is a sizeable chunk of my life and I would strongly prefer to not have a 5-10 year chunk of my life with elevated rents due to airbnb listings.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Well, at that point, it's that old HN adage: there's no shortage; you just refuse to pay enough. There's also a shortage of $15/mo Manhattan Beach rentals.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#563
post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it really happen all the time? Any references to this happening all the time? Because to me it seems like border patrol doesn't have the authority to check your bank account or demand that you "show significant savings". Sure they can refuse to let you in but does it really happen all the time?

I've seen a student required to show a bank balance and withdraw sufficient money before being granted a tourist visa for a different country. (He was in front of me in the queue.) The UK requires some visitors to show bank statements when applying for a visa.

Germany for example, requires a "Blocked Bank Account" for certain type of student, work and other kinds of visas.

This account is opened remotely from the students' home country in a German bank, before the visa applicstion. And savings cannot be withdrawn for a period of time.

I had an acquaintance that studied in Germany that had a visa problem for withdrawing more money than allowed from his "Blocked bank account".

https://www.fintiba.com/moving-to-germany/studying/requireme...

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#564
post #555

Earlier quoted context omitted.

90 days is the number agreed upon by company lawyers. Company lawyers do not have a sense of adventure, so this is a relatively watertight figure for most countries in the world and not dependent on your honesty.

Personally I'm curious about how they have rights to even know where you are at any given time. If you're an in-office employee, your responsibilities are (a) show up at the expected work hours (b) get your tasks done. If you're defined as a fully remote employee, your responsibilities are (a) be online and available at the expected work hours (b) get your tasks done. Besides that you're just an amorphous black box,…

You can't just legally avoid taxes by not letting your employer know. Sure, they prob won't know and you'll get away with it, but you're technically breaking the law and an employer won't knowingly condone that.

So it's not that they have a right to know where you are, it's that if they do notice and not act on it that's a legal risk to them as well since they're enabling it. (IANAL but this feels common sense.)

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#565

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Many others have chimed in, but this is very important to highlight. Meeting with clients, going to conference, having important meetings, these are things we consider work. However, from the eyes of the law, these are temporary things that need to be done in person for business that has already occurred. That is, if you come to a conference, meet a potential client, and then set up a sales meeting before you leave,…

There must be some exception to this. I am a US citizen working for a London company and a few times a year I go over, explicitly telling the immigration officer it's for "business meetings," and that's explicitly allowed. I couldn't just go work for the hell of it but as a manager of a team it makes sense I make special occasion trips. Technically they could ask me to produce a letter from my employer explicitly confirming the reason for my travel but I've never had any friction at all. But my company was very explicit that I explain it's for "business meetings" and not regular work.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is, in my opinion, a massive and near total loss for all the renters, first-time homebuyers, existing families, and the sense of community in areas affected by AirBnB's cancerous growth.

Why?

Imagine living in a nice forest home near Tahoe. 20 years ago you had neighbors you talked to and could borrow a tool from. Now you have a never ending flow of new tourists visiting Tahoe staying at the Airbnb next to your house.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#567

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Big cities are by nature cosmopolitan, it’s very strange to say only some people “belong” and others don’t. Would you prefer the world isolate into pockets of belonging based on generational inheritance as it has been and we crank back globalization? Certainly there are growing pains, but I would view more globalization as the direction we want to go.

The problem is that people move to Rome because it is Rome and not LA, and then proceed to turn it into LA. Even a hundred years ago traveling somewhere brought you to a very different world, now it's hard to tell the difference between some cities since they're all covered in McDonald's and Starbucks anyway. And it's not just the companies, either. Part of the problem is our American way-of-life covers everything in…

I too lament some of the homogeneity of culture brought about by globalization. But I think the benefits are well worth it. Indeed in the future I would expect (or hope) for people to feel as though they are world citizens, and never feel too far from home wherever they go. The world gets smaller as we integrate it, and though we’ll lose remnants of the past I think it is the only way we can hope to have a future.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#568

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...Of course, these laws never foresaw technological progress and so the world governments look the other way because they do not know how/what to enforce... Other than the current scale of activity, the law has no "never foresaw technolo..." excuse for failing to cover such things. Centuries ago, it was perfectly normal for authors, composers, painters, etc. to travel to and work in other countries - "for their he…

That's an interesting case - if you write a book on holiday, but not on contract, and then sell it later when you return, where did the work occur? Where did the taxable event occur?

For that specific case, it is tempting to look to securities law, and the "when did something clearly become valuable?" concept.

If you're a well-established author of (say) steamy romances, writing yet another steamy romance - then the value is created (work is done) when you write the book.

If you're a nobody, dreaming of success as an author - then the work is done when you somehow convince a publisher to take a risk and buy your manuscript.

(And in between those cases it would get messy:)

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#569
post #555

Earlier quoted context omitted.

90 days is the number agreed upon by company lawyers. Company lawyers do not have a sense of adventure, so this is a relatively watertight figure for most countries in the world and not dependent on your honesty.

Personally I'm curious about how they have rights to even know where you are at any given time. If you're an in-office employee, your responsibilities are (a) show up at the expected work hours (b) get your tasks done. If you're defined as a fully remote employee, your responsibilities are (a) be online and available at the expected work hours (b) get your tasks done. Besides that you're just an amorphous black box,…

Because the black box for legal purposes still presumes you are in-office. When you are remote, you are structured as working from your "home office" not anywhere.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why?

because supply and demand matter, and units that are AirBnB'ed are taken off the market for long term rentals, leading to rents for locals rising higher than trend. Even given that in the perfect economy construction would keep up with demand, there is a ~5-10 year lag between demand signal and correction in construction (prices rise, new construction breaks ground, new construction opens, new constructions absorbs m…

Apply this logic of maintaining the status quo historically. Imagine someone creates something to do (Y) with good X. Price of good X goes up due to increase demand. Consumers of good X lobby that this is bad and there should be laws to prevent good X to be used for Y.

Also why are you optimizing for lower rents (as long as they are not AirBNB short term rentals)? What about the homeowners who benefit from having more things they can do with their property? Or the people that are coming to stay short term?

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