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Another aspect of Airbnb is that it makes everywhere the same as far as interior decor goes. Traditional rent seeking landlords spend $0.00 on things like paint
by Theodores 8y ago
Another aspect of Airbnb is that it makes everywhere the same as far as interior decor goes. Traditional rent seeking landlords spend $0.00 on things like paint, carpets and fixtures, preserving places in some rotten state of decay as long term tenants are not going to be spending their money on such things even if they are living there for many years. There is no reason for them to do so and with landlords extorting as much from their properties as possible the tenants do not have surplus income to improve their dwellings even if they should want to do so.
Airbnb transformed that, the rent seeking class can now get income on their properties without having to put up with long term tenants. However they do have to spend money on the property fixtures, which can be paid for with debt, debt that is 'secured' by the property.
As a consequence there is a particular Airbnb style, it is a global style influenced by upmarket hotels and the faceless luxury decor you get with them. This might work out nicely for the rent seeker and the guest, however it means character is lost. The property becomes bland Airbnb which can't be transformed back to vernacular.
When the rent seeker eventually sells up and a new buyer is sought then the house does go on the market. It has its price and sells fine with its identikit Airbnb fixtures. However some people don't want to live in one of these ex-Airbnb places, they might have wanted mid-century modern or Victorian or whatever else the property should have, i.e. actual character befitting the area and not the internet.
- modwilliam 8y agoCould you show some examples of the particular Airbnb style?
- badwolf 8y agofrom my anecdotal experience, Every AirBnB is like an Ikea vomited all over everything.
- focom 8y ago> Could you show some examples of the particular Airbnb style? There is a great long form written in 2016 by the verge about it : https://www.theverge.com/2016/8/3/12325104/airbnb-aesthetic-global-minimalism-startup-gentrification https://www.theverge.com/2016/8/3/12325104/airbnb-aesthetic-...
- peacetreefrog 8y agoLuckily, you can decorate your own house/apartment however you want.
- Theodores 8y agoIn previous times you didn't just rip everything out to a bare shell to then do what an Airbnb person does and put some modern IKEA junk in. You can't restore doors, tiles, fireplaces and other items of character if some rent seeking airbnb clown has sent it all to the landfill to replace it all with items of fake or non-existent character. Character is important, imagine if you are in Glasgow and you have a property that really does have Charles Rennie Mackintosh beauty to it, beauty that has served generations with an occasional lick of paint. Now imagine some rent seeker with no values rips out the interior so they can make two airbnb apartments. They don't care for Charles Rennie Mackintosh but they have destroyed a little bit of what makes Glasgow special. Imagine they also own another Airbnb in the Cotswolds where the property has character that goes back to the cottage industry that started the industrial revolution. They do an Airbnb IKEA job on it the same as they did in Glasgow, a little bit of the Cotswolds dies too. Eventually when some locals get to buy the property which could happen if they win the lottery then they can't just 'paint in' what was ripped out. Maybe you live in somewhere like America where you don't have houses that have been lived in for hundreds of years and character is anathema to you. Perhaps you already live in Airbnb theme-park world and have no appreciation for heritage.
- PhasmaFelis 8y agoIt must be great to have enough money that you can afford to care about whether your home fixtures have local character.
- Theodores 8y agoIt is about elbow grease and not money. It is about recycling and not land-filling. If you move into a place that has been airbnb'd then it is clear that things our forefathers built to last have been trashed by philistines rather than lovingly restored. If you are paying for the property then you are also paying for the IKEA junk that the estate agent has bumped up the price for. This is a con if you wanted vernacular rather than to be stiffed over. Heritage matters but if you have none then you cannot appreciate this. Don't be a cynic, jealous of those that want a home rather than a dwelling unit.
- ErockSteady 8y agoYou do know that "rent seeking" doesn't mean "seeking someone to pay rent" right? And being a landlord doesn't make one "rent seeking", right? You use this phrase over and over again and you don't appear to understand what it means.