3 ms·

Title should say: "Cities wreck travellers' holiday plans as battle with AirBnB intensifies"

detaro 8y ago
Or "Airbnb hosts fail to comply with regulations and accept reservations anyways, wrecking their guests holiday plans". Or "Airbnb fails to properly warn travellers they're booking stays that potentially will have to be cancelled later".
- superkuh 8y ago
  Or, "Airbnb fails to warn travellers city plans to wreck their holidy plans." It's almost funny that the city is engaging in rent-seeking behavior against renters. In this move San Francisco makes it clear that they believe they own your property and you merely occupy it on their whim.
  - Angostura 8y ago
    > In this move San Francisco makes it clear that they believe they own your property and you merely occupy it on their whim. In this move, San Franciso makes it clear that you can't change the use of a property without permission.
    - superkuh 8y ago
      Right, the premise of this is that it's their and not yours. You have to get permission to use your own property how you like. Living in a city means giving up rights to the authoritarians who keep high population density centers from killing each other. Living in a city is a big trade-off. More jobs, less liberty.
  - jlgray 8y ago
    Zoning requirements and permits for operating hotels are not unreasonable. Some people rent out a spare room now and again for extra cash, and some people have multiple properties that are occupied exclusively by Airbnb renters, essentially running an unlicensed hotel. The latter can be extremely obnoxious if its your upstairs neighbor, not to mention the effects that being discovered by Airbnb real estate investors can have on a town or neighborhood.
- cornholio 8y ago
  Or: "Cities fail to properly regulate Airbnb, widely deploy sinister measures to discourage people from using it"
  - detaro 8y ago
    What would "proper regulation" be, and why isn't a registration and review system for hosts such? (If it turns out it was the city's fault that Airbnb erroneously thought the registration was invalid, that'd clearly be an implementation failure, I agree, but still leaves open the question why Airbnb only reacted so late)
    - cornholio 8y ago
      If only there was a way to make tourists and hosts pay for the inconvenience and externalities they cause, and put that revenue to the benefit of everyone in the city. I know, let's call it a tax. As opposed to a rigid system of "designated uses" for private properties that prevents economic transactions depending on how much they inconvenience upper class and politically connected residents and competing hospitality interests.
      - ghaff 8y ago
        If I'm living in a building and it becomes intolerable because of noisy transient visitors on a regular basis, a tax that goes to the city does me no good whatsoever.
        ensignavenger 8y ago
        If you are in a condo, your homeowners association should have rules about making noise, and the owners of the airbnb should be forced to take responsibility. If an apartment complex, your landlord should deal with it.
        bjl 8y ago
        Or, and here's an idea, we can enact sane regulations like licensing requirements to prevent the negative externalities from happening in the first place.
- notwhereyouare 8y ago
  The woman added: “I called the city authorities and they confirmed my application, and the licence number I’ve been issued is what Airbnb requires, so that’s what I provided. But Airbnb still says the city rejected my number. Both sides are pointing at each other.” Your first quote is wrong according to the article
Spooky23 8y ago
Actually, no. AirBnb bungled the process. The host was able to rent. I also found it weird that the PR nonsense said that “2 million” people are using the service and putting money in the pockets of “countless” hosts. Hosts aren’t countless... so I wonder why they aren’t calling that out?
- albertgoeswoof 8y ago
  They probably don’t have data to count. So technically they are countless.
FussyZeus 8y ago
It's almost like thumbing your nose at government regulations isn't a good plan for a solid future in business. Who knew.
dang 8y ago
Certainly the article's original title is both misleading and clickbait, but the idea is to change such titles to something accurate and neutral. I've taken a crack at it based on the contents of the article, but if someone comes up with a more accurate and neutral title we can change it again.

Or "Airbnb hosts fail to comply with regulations and accept reservations anyways, wrecking their guests holiday plans". Or "Airbnb fails to properly warn travellers they're booking stays that potentially will have to be cancelled later".

superkuh 8y ago
Or, "Airbnb fails to warn travellers city plans to wreck their holidy plans." It's almost funny that the city is engaging in rent-seeking behavior against renters. In this move San Francisco makes it clear that they believe they own your property and you merely occupy it on their whim.
- Angostura 8y ago
  > In this move San Francisco makes it clear that they believe they own your property and you merely occupy it on their whim. In this move, San Franciso makes it clear that you can't change the use of a property without permission.
  - superkuh 8y ago
    Right, the premise of this is that it's their and not yours. You have to get permission to use your own property how you like. Living in a city means giving up rights to the authoritarians who keep high population density centers from killing each other. Living in a city is a big trade-off. More jobs, less liberty.
- jlgray 8y ago
  Zoning requirements and permits for operating hotels are not unreasonable. Some people rent out a spare room now and again for extra cash, and some people have multiple properties that are occupied exclusively by Airbnb renters, essentially running an unlicensed hotel. The latter can be extremely obnoxious if its your upstairs neighbor, not to mention the effects that being discovered by Airbnb real estate investors can have on a town or neighborhood.
cornholio 8y ago
Or: "Cities fail to properly regulate Airbnb, widely deploy sinister measures to discourage people from using it"
- detaro 8y ago
  What would "proper regulation" be, and why isn't a registration and review system for hosts such? (If it turns out it was the city's fault that Airbnb erroneously thought the registration was invalid, that'd clearly be an implementation failure, I agree, but still leaves open the question why Airbnb only reacted so late)
  - cornholio 8y ago
    If only there was a way to make tourists and hosts pay for the inconvenience and externalities they cause, and put that revenue to the benefit of everyone in the city. I know, let's call it a tax. As opposed to a rigid system of "designated uses" for private properties that prevents economic transactions depending on how much they inconvenience upper class and politically connected residents and competing hospitality interests.
    - ghaff 8y ago
      If I'm living in a building and it becomes intolerable because of noisy transient visitors on a regular basis, a tax that goes to the city does me no good whatsoever.
      - ensignavenger 8y ago
        If you are in a condo, your homeowners association should have rules about making noise, and the owners of the airbnb should be forced to take responsibility. If an apartment complex, your landlord should deal with it.
        bjl 8y ago
        Or, and here's an idea, we can enact sane regulations like licensing requirements to prevent the negative externalities from happening in the first place.
notwhereyouare 8y ago
The woman added: “I called the city authorities and they confirmed my application, and the licence number I’ve been issued is what Airbnb requires, so that’s what I provided. But Airbnb still says the city rejected my number. Both sides are pointing at each other.” Your first quote is wrong according to the article

Spooky23 8y ago

Actually, no. AirBnb bungled the process. The host was able to rent. I also found it weird that the PR nonsense said that “2 million” people are using the service and putting money in the pockets of “countless” hosts. Hosts aren’t countless... so I wonder why they aren’t calling that out?

albertgoeswoof 8y ago
They probably don’t have data to count. So technically they are countless.

FussyZeus 8y ago

It's almost like thumbing your nose at government regulations isn't a good plan for a solid future in business. Who knew.

dang 8y ago

Certainly the article's original title is both misleading and clickbait, but the idea is to change such titles to something accurate and neutral. I've taken a crack at it based on the contents of the article, but if someone comes up with a more accurate and neutral title we can change it again.