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Airbnb’s ‘Guerrilla War’ Against Local Governments

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Re: Airbnb’s ‘Guerrilla War’ Against Local Governments

#61

Post by skrebbel »

iandanforth wrote: post #37

This seems like an overly critical article. Zoning laws and NIMBY impulses should be fought tooth-and-nail and I'm glad Airbnb is doing so. The platform has allowed me to actually enjoy travel in ways I never could before. What I feel like is missing is a communication path from the community to the platform. Because people start by calling the police to complain it immediately becomes a legal and local ordinance iss…

> If it were easy to report abuses to Airbnb directly, or if local police were instructed to contact them, the platform could better regulate itself.

And the fact that they don't have a feature for this shows that they don't care. They just think that a few lawsuits here and there are cheaper than adequately dealing with community complaints.

Re: Airbnb’s ‘Guerrilla War’ Against Local Governments

#62

Post by Juliate »

koboll wrote: post #55
duxup wrote: post #26

I lived a few doors down to someone who basically ran an ad hoc AirBnB ... before Airbnb. It was pretty terrible. Parties all the time, trash, they parked anywhere (in other people's driveways...) because there were likely no long term consequences for doing so, the folks staying there didn't care because why should they? I was on the association board, it's kinda thankless job as we had to deal with this house. We g…

>In the end it was just a horrible situation to open up what was a hotel, right in the middle of our association / neighborhood. By joining a HOA, you've delegated away to the collective the right to dictate to your neighbors what they can and can't do with their own property. In your case, the system worked - because you are in a HOA. If people want to exert that kind of collectivist control over their neighbors, th…

> But outside of that structure, what gives someone the right to dictate to their neighbors what they can and can't do with their own property?

Ha. Don't come in Europe cities. There _are_ regulations in cities about that. And rightly so.

Re: Airbnb’s ‘Guerrilla War’ Against Local Governments

#63

Post by jseliger »

jak92 wrote: post #4

Just look at the havoc being reigned on some neighborhoods in Miami Beach during spring break. Specifically the low-scale, residential flamingo park neighborhood of south beach.

I would say that one should look at the hovoc that reigns in neighborhoods with draconian zoning that prevents sufficient supply from coming online to meet demand for housing and hotels. We have the technologies necessary to build housing demanded by humans; we just make deploying that tech illegal.

Re: Airbnb’s ‘Guerrilla War’ Against Local Governments

#64

Post by prklmn »

TheHypnotist wrote: post #20
matchbok wrote: post #15

AirBnb is a terrible, terrible company. Most of their money comes from corporate-owned mini-hotels yet they advertise as a mom and pop shop. At every turn their solution is to sue small towns and cities so they can continue to extract wealth from our neighborhoods. Disgusting.

Why is this disgusting? Down vote with no answer?

Suing every city trying to regulate your service that’s harming city residents is just lovely to you?

Re: Airbnb’s ‘Guerrilla War’ Against Local Governments

#65

Post by duxup »

koboll wrote: post #55
duxup wrote: post #26

I lived a few doors down to someone who basically ran an ad hoc AirBnB ... before Airbnb. It was pretty terrible. Parties all the time, trash, they parked anywhere (in other people's driveways...) because there were likely no long term consequences for doing so, the folks staying there didn't care because why should they? I was on the association board, it's kinda thankless job as we had to deal with this house. We g…

>In the end it was just a horrible situation to open up what was a hotel, right in the middle of our association / neighborhood. By joining a HOA, you've delegated away to the collective the right to dictate to your neighbors what they can and can't do with their own property. In your case, the system worked - because you are in a HOA. If people want to exert that kind of collectivist control over their neighbors, th…

> that's the kind of organization they should be buying homes in

Or maybe buy in a city that makes the decision to not allow that kind of rental?

I don't see a significant difference in a step up from the association I was in where you deemed that ok, to a city making the same decision.

Re: Airbnb’s ‘Guerrilla War’ Against Local Governments

#66

Post by organsnyder »

jak92 wrote: post #30
drugme wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So this is local governments trying to railroad an online information/marketplace/intermediation firm into becoming a tax collector. It's not "railroading", it's called "the regulated collection of reasonable usage fees." It's how cities are run, and have always been run. If Airbnb doesn't like it -- they don't need to go into the hospitality business in these places.

> the hospitality business but they're a technology company!

They offer a hotel booking platform. Their value is the network of renters and rooms—the tech stack is fairly trivial by comparison.

Re: Airbnb’s ‘Guerrilla War’ Against Local Governments

#67

Post by ThJ »

I feel there is a difference between putting your home up for short term rent while you're away versus buying multiple homes that you never stay in and operating them as a self-service hotel. There's nothing wrong with this, but if you run a business, you must file the appropriate paperwork and follow the same rules as other businesses.

Re: Airbnb’s ‘Guerrilla War’ Against Local Governments

#68

Post by franzb »

keanebean86 wrote: post #39
pjc50 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of cities where apartments have become AirBnBs, caused great disruption to their neighbours, and driven up rents. This has resulted in people demanding that Something Be Done.

Are people using airbnbs as apartments? I don't see how it drives rent up. There's a finite amount of tourism/visitors so they should only be competing with hotels. What am I missing here? Edit: downvoted for asking a question you disagree with? What is this reddit?

Isn't it obvious? People buy appartements in nice city centers only to rent them on AirBnb, causing all kinds of disruptions (local shops turn into tourist shops, etc.) and reducing the number of flats for locals. This is exactly what is happening in my neighborhood (France). It's terrible.

Re: Airbnb’s ‘Guerrilla War’ Against Local Governments

#69

Post by anoncoward111 »

duxup wrote: post #26

I lived a few doors down to someone who basically ran an ad hoc AirBnB ... before Airbnb. It was pretty terrible. Parties all the time, trash, they parked anywhere (in other people's driveways...) because there were likely no long term consequences for doing so, the folks staying there didn't care because why should they? I was on the association board, it's kinda thankless job as we had to deal with this house. We g…

What you are describing is precisely the same situation I had when I lived in an apartment building next to a long-term tenant.

She simply didn't give a shit about the noise and trash she generated and all of us had to deal with it. The landlord didn't care either.

The police told me to deal with the landlord, because the noise wasn't at 3AM and wasn't "an event" like a concert. But her music was loud enough to shake my walls such that pictures fell off of them.

The town never returned phone calls. I simply vacated the apartment and told the landlord he would be more than welcome to sue me in court for the remainder of the lease.

Strangely, he never did, but I have a feeling that I would have had a hard time defending myself in court.

Though it is an unpopular opinion, I now feel that single family homes might be peferable to apartment buildings, if the caveat is that "the town and police will not do anything about anti-social behavior" as it is so rightfully called in the UK.

Re: Airbnb’s ‘Guerrilla War’ Against Local Governments

#70

Post by braythwayt »

duxup wrote: post #40
iandanforth wrote: post #37

This seems like an overly critical article. Zoning laws and NIMBY impulses should be fought tooth-and-nail and I'm glad Airbnb is doing so. The platform has allowed me to actually enjoy travel in ways I never could before. What I feel like is missing is a communication path from the community to the platform. Because people start by calling the police to complain it immediately becomes a legal and local ordinance iss…

>If it were easy to report abuses to Airbnb directly, or if local police were instructed to contact them, the platform could better regulate itself. I don't think Airbnb really cares to do that... and that kinda is where the problems start in terms of what Airbnb is really all about.

I'm the absolute last person to think that tech can be trusted to regulate itself for anything. We've seen how companies like Amazon and eBay cater to their power sellers, how social media caters to its advertisers, &c. &c.

It would be delightful if AirBnB were to be the exception, but as Reagan(?) said, "Trust, but verify."

Who does the verifying if we remove local government from oversight?

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