8 ms·

He is renting 5 homes in Santa Monica? Does he own them or is he subletting? Instead of having a law against short term renting it should just be one against r

by bruceb 10y ago

He is renting 5 homes in Santa Monica? Does he own them or is he subletting? Instead of having a law against short term renting it should just be one against renting for more than a total number of days in a year, say 90. That allows people who are out of town to rent but it not be a permanent hotel.

abannin 10y ago
SF has a day limit (within certain conditions) but has no way to enforce it. Hence the recent actions to hold the platform accountable & AirBnB suing the city.
ModernMech 10y ago
Yes, that sounds sensible, but I was surprised to read that the Santa Monica law restricts renting for less than 30 days for a stay for a whole unit. This would mean I couldn't rent my place for a week while I'm on vacation, which seems wrong to me.
- an_account 10y ago
  Do people do that often with Airbnb? In my experience (I live in LA), almost all whole residence Airbnbs are long-term rental units that have been converted to short-term rental units
  - douche 10y ago
    I think all of the AirBnBs I have been to (across a few cities in Europe on vacation), it appears that what happened was one half of a couple moved in with the other half, and, with a lease that they couldn't get out of, rented out on AirBnB rather than eating the months of rent for an apartment they wouldn't be living in.
  - YokoZar 10y ago
    There's some fraction of people who put up a listing and then temporarily stay elsewhere when it gets booked. This tends to happen in cities with plenty of rental inventory, as otherwise they just get booked all the time. The "frequent business traveler" type is probably more likely to let out their space when gone than the "going on vacation for one week" type too.
- danso 10y ago
  I believe this is exactly the kind of thing the Santa Monica law wants to curtail. The argument is that neighbors dislike fly-by visitors who aren't moderated by the homeowner's presence.
an_account 10y ago
Since Airbnb doesn't share data with the city, it'd be very difficult to enforce a number of days limit. Currently the city is just booking short term rentals through the app as proof of wrongdoing. For what they are trying to accomplish (whether you agree with it or not), the law they enacted will probably work decently well.
orange_county 10y ago
If you own the place, why does your city or your neighbor have to have a say in how you manage your property? This is what I don't get. It's your place, you paid for it, it's yours. If they don't like what you are doing, then they should move. This anti-house sharing nonsense is just a ploy by the hotel cartels. If you don't own the place, and the owner is okay with you subletting, again what's the problem? This is one of the few things I don't ever get. Regulation on things that are not an issue in the first place.
- Mikeb85 10y ago
  Why don't I just buy the house next to yours and start a 100 seat restaurant? Maybe have a poolside bar in the backyard? Anyhow, zoning exists for a reason. Hotels are a business. You can't run any business out of your home. If you do allow any home to become a hotel, you're opening a huge can of worms...
  - davidw 10y ago
    > Anyhow, zoning exists for a reason Yeah, to keep out black people, poor people and other undesirables who cannot afford single family detached homes: http://reason.com/archives/2014/04/02/zonings-racist-roots-still-bear-fruit http://reason.com/archives/2014/04/02/zonings-racist-roots-s... Also, to ensure that you must have a car to do anything at all. God forbid anyone build something like a corner store within walking distance. Other reasons here: http://www.nimbyngo.com/ http://www.nimbyngo.com/
    - sdoering 10y ago
      At least in Germany zoning laws are there to prevent businesses to intrude into residential neighborhoods. That means, I get to live in an area that is not "polluted" by noisy trucks driving up and down the street to deliver or collect goods - and so on. It also means, I am restricted in what I do with my own property in such, that I cannot build a factory inside my home/on my ground for the same reasons. Imho this is quite a reasonable policy. Some other zoning laws in German communities might restrict me from planting some trees while forcing me to plant a hedge from a small list of pre defined plant varieties - just to make sure the neighborhood looks homogenous. These laws do not make the slightest sense imho. Esp. as the allowed plant varieties oftentimes are not local but some stuff that is easy in handling and not that great for nature (no possibilities for birds to nest and such stuff).
wdr1 10y ago
As a Santa Monica resident, I would love that. When I got married my (large, greek) family visited for 2 weeks. I lived in an apartment at the time, and it was wonderful that could all rent a large house to stay in. Even today that would be useful for when groups visit over the holidays & what not, but it's imply not an option. One concern residents have is they don't want to suddenly find there's a "party house" in the neighborhood. In their defense, this was happening. (Google [House of Rock LLC] if you're curious.) However banning AirBnB isn't the right way to address that, nor does it really solve that problem. Unfortunately, I don't ever see the law changing. There's two unlikely segments coming together to support the law: 1) The hotels. An "normal" hotel here charges ~$400/night. High end easily goes for over $600/night. And don't even ask about rates in peak season. 2) The anti-development crowd. There's a very vocal segment that wants no new development & low, affordable rents. (If you're thinking "uh, supply & demand", that gets dismissed in discussions as a Republican trick.) They also tend to not like people new to the city. They saw AirBnB taking the limited rental stock off the market (which was happening). OP's proposal would address that, but at this point, you're not going to change this group's mindset.

by bruceb 10y ago

abannin 10y ago

SF has a day limit (within certain conditions) but has no way to enforce it. Hence the recent actions to hold the platform accountable & AirBnB suing the city.

ModernMech 10y ago

Yes, that sounds sensible, but I was surprised to read that the Santa Monica law restricts renting for less than 30 days for a stay for a whole unit. This would mean I couldn't rent my place for a week while I'm on vacation, which seems wrong to me.

an_account 10y ago
Do people do that often with Airbnb? In my experience (I live in LA), almost all whole residence Airbnbs are long-term rental units that have been converted to short-term rental units
- douche 10y ago
  I think all of the AirBnBs I have been to (across a few cities in Europe on vacation), it appears that what happened was one half of a couple moved in with the other half, and, with a lease that they couldn't get out of, rented out on AirBnB rather than eating the months of rent for an apartment they wouldn't be living in.
- YokoZar 10y ago
  There's some fraction of people who put up a listing and then temporarily stay elsewhere when it gets booked. This tends to happen in cities with plenty of rental inventory, as otherwise they just get booked all the time. The "frequent business traveler" type is probably more likely to let out their space when gone than the "going on vacation for one week" type too.
danso 10y ago
I believe this is exactly the kind of thing the Santa Monica law wants to curtail. The argument is that neighbors dislike fly-by visitors who aren't moderated by the homeowner's presence.

an_account 10y ago

Since Airbnb doesn't share data with the city, it'd be very difficult to enforce a number of days limit. Currently the city is just booking short term rentals through the app as proof of wrongdoing. For what they are trying to accomplish (whether you agree with it or not), the law they enacted will probably work decently well.

orange_county 10y ago

If you own the place, why does your city or your neighbor have to have a say in how you manage your property? This is what I don't get. It's your place, you paid for it, it's yours. If they don't like what you are doing, then they should move. This anti-house sharing nonsense is just a ploy by the hotel cartels. If you don't own the place, and the owner is okay with you subletting, again what's the problem? This is one of the few things I don't ever get. Regulation on things that are not an issue in the first place.

Mikeb85 10y ago
Why don't I just buy the house next to yours and start a 100 seat restaurant? Maybe have a poolside bar in the backyard? Anyhow, zoning exists for a reason. Hotels are a business. You can't run any business out of your home. If you do allow any home to become a hotel, you're opening a huge can of worms...
- davidw 10y ago
  > Anyhow, zoning exists for a reason Yeah, to keep out black people, poor people and other undesirables who cannot afford single family detached homes: http://reason.com/archives/2014/04/02/zonings-racist-roots-still-bear-fruit http://reason.com/archives/2014/04/02/zonings-racist-roots-s... Also, to ensure that you must have a car to do anything at all. God forbid anyone build something like a corner store within walking distance. Other reasons here: http://www.nimbyngo.com/ http://www.nimbyngo.com/
  - sdoering 10y ago
    At least in Germany zoning laws are there to prevent businesses to intrude into residential neighborhoods. That means, I get to live in an area that is not "polluted" by noisy trucks driving up and down the street to deliver or collect goods - and so on. It also means, I am restricted in what I do with my own property in such, that I cannot build a factory inside my home/on my ground for the same reasons. Imho this is quite a reasonable policy. Some other zoning laws in German communities might restrict me from planting some trees while forcing me to plant a hedge from a small list of pre defined plant varieties - just to make sure the neighborhood looks homogenous. These laws do not make the slightest sense imho. Esp. as the allowed plant varieties oftentimes are not local but some stuff that is easy in handling and not that great for nature (no possibilities for birds to nest and such stuff).

wdr1 10y ago

As a Santa Monica resident, I would love that. When I got married my (large, greek) family visited for 2 weeks. I lived in an apartment at the time, and it was wonderful that could all rent a large house to stay in. Even today that would be useful for when groups visit over the holidays & what not, but it's imply not an option. One concern residents have is they don't want to suddenly find there's a "party house" in the neighborhood. In their defense, this was happening. (Google [House of Rock LLC] if you're curious.) However banning AirBnB isn't the right way to address that, nor does it really solve that problem. Unfortunately, I don't ever see the law changing. There's two unlikely segments coming together to support the law: 1) The hotels. An "normal" hotel here charges ~$400/night. High end easily goes for over $600/night. And don't even ask about rates in peak season. 2) The anti-development crowd. There's a very vocal segment that wants no new development & low, affordable rents. (If you're thinking "uh, supply & demand", that gets dismissed in discussions as a Republican trick.) They also tend to not like people new to the city. They saw AirBnB taking the limited rental stock off the market (which was happening). OP's proposal would address that, but at this point, you're not going to change this group's mindset.