5 ms·

What is the burden of short-term visitors? I've heard that said before, but I've never heard any actual examples of problems that occur from short-term visitors

by tg3 11y ago

What is the burden of short-term visitors? I've heard that said before, but I've never heard any actual examples of problems that occur from short-term visitors that aren't present with long-term residents.

bsder 11y ago
Bedbugs are one of the big ones that I have heard reported where landlords had to pump a lot of money in. The risk obviously goes up linearly with the number of unique visitors. A very genuine problem when one tenant of a multi-unit decides to do AirBnB. As for detached dwellings? If you're hosting out of country people, how do I, as your neighbor, prosecute them if they damage my property (bust a fence, hit my car, swim in my pool)? I can keep going, but our current laws were set up with the recognition that transiency does represent a risk. Clearly people DO recognize this as a risk or it wouldn't be explicitly banned by so many HOA agreements.
- mrgordon 11y ago
  The fact that something is banned by HOA agreements hardly proves its risky or even seen as such. I've seen many HOA agreements that ban painting your house a non-approved color. I'm not sure I follow your comment about detached dwellings and foreign visitors. The biggest issue will be identifying who harmed your property which will be significantly easier if your neighbor used Airbnb as their identification will be on file. Whereas if they just drove by and damaged your property or stayed at your neighbors house through a less formal rental system that will never be as well regulated (Craigslist, local word of mouth, etc.) or a hotel a mile away then it would be much harder to track them down.
- smsm42 11y ago
  You can prosecute the owner of the property, and no reasonable court would deny you on that. > Clearly people DO recognize this as a risk or it wouldn't be explicitly banned by so many HOA agreements. That's circular reasoning - we ban it in HOA agreements because it's dangerous, and it's dangerous because look - it's banned in HOA agreements!
pbreit 11y ago
Owners give a crap. Long term renters less so. Short term renters not at all.
geebee 11y ago
Here's one scenario. A family, with two kids, lives in a single family house in a neighborhood zoned for single families. A house on the block goes on the market. Several families, with children around the same as the neighbors, tour and bid on the property. However, an enterprising person (who doesn't need the bedrooms for kids) uses the anticipated income from airbnb rentals (not to mention the absence of childcare costs) to outbid all those families. The SFR zoned house, on a SFR zoned block, is now a hotel, for all practical purposes. Guess the kids will have to find neighborhood friends somewhere else. The visitors are quiet, polite. So, no harm no foul? I understand that this scenario can occur in the absence of airbnb or even short term rentals(plenty of people rent out rooms in their houses), but there's an order of magnitude difference here. Also, I still see more benefit to this if these are permanent, long term rentals. They may be students who need a place to live, long term residents who need a place to live. I also think that unregulated and unresticted[1] airbnb makes this scenario much more likely (which is one reason why the company is so profitable, it has made it much easier to rent out "spare" bedrooms, creating a new market). [1] properly regulated airbnb, which allows someone to rent out their house while they are on vacation, now and then, would not cause any of this harm.

by tg3 11y ago

bsder 11y ago

Bedbugs are one of the big ones that I have heard reported where landlords had to pump a lot of money in. The risk obviously goes up linearly with the number of unique visitors. A very genuine problem when one tenant of a multi-unit decides to do AirBnB. As for detached dwellings? If you're hosting out of country people, how do I, as your neighbor, prosecute them if they damage my property (bust a fence, hit my car, swim in my pool)? I can keep going, but our current laws were set up with the recognition that transiency does represent a risk. Clearly people DO recognize this as a risk or it wouldn't be explicitly banned by so many HOA agreements.

mrgordon 11y ago
The fact that something is banned by HOA agreements hardly proves its risky or even seen as such. I've seen many HOA agreements that ban painting your house a non-approved color. I'm not sure I follow your comment about detached dwellings and foreign visitors. The biggest issue will be identifying who harmed your property which will be significantly easier if your neighbor used Airbnb as their identification will be on file. Whereas if they just drove by and damaged your property or stayed at your neighbors house through a less formal rental system that will never be as well regulated (Craigslist, local word of mouth, etc.) or a hotel a mile away then it would be much harder to track them down.
smsm42 11y ago
You can prosecute the owner of the property, and no reasonable court would deny you on that. > Clearly people DO recognize this as a risk or it wouldn't be explicitly banned by so many HOA agreements. That's circular reasoning - we ban it in HOA agreements because it's dangerous, and it's dangerous because look - it's banned in HOA agreements!

pbreit 11y ago

Owners give a crap. Long term renters less so. Short term renters not at all.

geebee 11y ago

Here's one scenario. A family, with two kids, lives in a single family house in a neighborhood zoned for single families. A house on the block goes on the market. Several families, with children around the same as the neighbors, tour and bid on the property. However, an enterprising person (who doesn't need the bedrooms for kids) uses the anticipated income from airbnb rentals (not to mention the absence of childcare costs) to outbid all those families. The SFR zoned house, on a SFR zoned block, is now a hotel, for all practical purposes. Guess the kids will have to find neighborhood friends somewhere else. The visitors are quiet, polite. So, no harm no foul? I understand that this scenario can occur in the absence of airbnb or even short term rentals(plenty of people rent out rooms in their houses), but there's an order of magnitude difference here. Also, I still see more benefit to this if these are permanent, long term rentals. They may be students who need a place to live, long term residents who need a place to live. I also think that unregulated and unresticted[1] airbnb makes this scenario much more likely (which is one reason why the company is so profitable, it has made it much easier to rent out "spare" bedrooms, creating a new market). [1] properly regulated airbnb, which allows someone to rent out their house while they are on vacation, now and then, would not cause any of this harm.