81–90 of 104 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
These people didn't just "commingle" hotels alongside other buildings; they implanted hotels into apartment buildings . That is definitely not a norm in NYC.
I'm with you that if they were doing that in violation of their lease, then it's wrong.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It harms communities by allowing housing inventory to flow to where the demand is most intense?
There are externalities, though, to running a hotel, which is why we have taxes and rules to mitigate those things. These people are trying to bypass these mitigations, and push the externalities back on the populace. That is not ok.
I don't really thing what this guy did was a bad thing: He had positive reviews, multiple maids to cleanup after guests, and willingly broke leases and lost money when there were complaints.
Sure, the people renting from him loved it; the neighbors, however, had to suffer. The reason we have hotel regulations is to help mitigate the externalities that hotel operations put on the nearby community. This guy was bypassing all of those. There are more people involved in the transaction than just the renter and the rentee.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eliminating all listings without a host present would solve 99% of these problems. That's what the site sells itself as, anyway. Problem is there isn't much money to be made there. Or just do a tiny bit of host/property verification. Again, too much money to be made from illegal/unzoned hotels.
I see. So, the legality of short-term rentals in NYC hinge on the presence of the host during the rental. And, that's not easily detectable by just scraping Airbnb. I still think it'd be straight forward to scrape reviews off Airbnb that have telltale signs of the host not being present e.g. lockbox mentions. Filing complaints/lawsuits against even a small minority should create a chilling effect for everyone else wh…
Having stayed in AirBnB-type listings when traveling with my family, it’s clear to me that there is a huge market need for short term home rentals, and we should figure out how to do this without stomping on neighbors or pricing out locals in the process. There are a lot of positive externalities to families and larger groups coming to a city and spending their money. When I need 3 adjoining bedrooms and a space that…
How though? What is the proposal to not hit NIMBYism? I am generally very liberal with what I think homeowners should be allowed to do. But an apartment or condo next to, or above mine with a rotating crew of guests? I shouldn't need to put up with that unless I agree to it in writing before starting my lease. There IS existing space marked out for hotels. If it were a profitable business, why has no one starting bui…
First one to scale wins.
financial illiteracy is a real problem in journalism. You can't really judge how egregious/successful these guys were without knowing the annualized NET revenue of this business.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If only there were some way, a technology, even, of increasing the total number of units on a given plot of land, such that those who want to live in a city or visit a city wouldn't have to compete so vigorously for livable housing units. Alas, we can only dream that such a technology. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_frame
Is your argument that tall buildings are not built in NYC?
Having stayed in AirBnB-type listings when traveling with my family, it’s clear to me that there is a huge market need for short term home rentals, and we should figure out how to do this without stomping on neighbors or pricing out locals in the process. There are a lot of positive externalities to families and larger groups coming to a city and spending their money. When I need 3 adjoining bedrooms and a space that…
> When I need 3 adjoining bedrooms and a space that will take dogs, a hotel is going to cost an absolute fortune in comparison or be actually impossible to find. Board your dogs at home. It's impossible to penalize dog owners for not cleaning up after themselves when they're skipping town in a few days. This is why zoning laws prohibit renting in residential areas - because you can't threaten people who don't live th…
Whether it’s not cleaning up after a dog, or playing music too loud, or being rude in the hallway, or littering in the street.
So what’s the solution — other than pervasive tracking — that allows good people behaving well (e.g. a middle class family) to be able to find a place to stay in a nice city?
“We’re not criminals,” he said at his lawyer’s office, while puffing from a Juul he kept in a black leather pouch fastened to a chain around his neck. He shrugged: “I don’t own a yacht or a big penthouse.” So you’re only a criminal if the haul is large?