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Amazing what a company can do when they ignore regulations and simply extract wealth out of our communities. 80% of their profit comes from huge corporate listi
by matchbok 8y ago
Amazing what a company can do when they ignore regulations and simply extract wealth out of our communities. 80% of their profit comes from huge corporate listings yet they advertise themselves as a "home-sharing" site. Nonsense.
- cycrutchfield 8y ago>extract wealth out of communities Yeah, you don’t have an axe to grind here, I’m sure.
- matchbok 8y agoI have an axe to grind against mini-hotels that operate without regulation that raise rents for everyone while providing massive money to a small number of interests. So yeah.
- jhall1468 8y agoSo, you're mad at Airbnb because the government isn't regulating it properly?
- rhizome 8y agoBecause it's only illegal because it's not regulated "properly?"
- jhall1468 8y agoAirbnb isn't doing anything illegal, the hosts are. If New York wants to put forward legislation that obligates Airbnb to develop a system for tracking that, great. But they aren't going to do it unless they have to.
- rexpop 8y agoWhat's that supposed to mean? Do you think this person was the literal, direct victim of such practices, and as such "has a [personal] axe to grind?" If so, although it exhibits bias, it also exhibits the phenomenon. That being said, there are _many_ communities upset by AirBnB's influence on their area. Example: https://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/article_ad1c91ac-3290-11e8-97d9-638a6761b7cf.html https://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/article_ad1c91a... Of course, Googling for that article turns up, primarily, AirBnB listings in New Orleans.
- longerthoughts 8y ago> they ignore regulations and simply extract wealth out of our communities Can you elaborate on this?
- Zimahl 8y agoI'm not the person you are asking but I'll lay out how I understand this argument from what I've read about the housing market in Portland, OR, which has a big housing crisis right now. Available housing, apartments, condos, etc, is being eaten up by short-term renters. The price of short-term rentals are more expensive than long-term rentals, but due to so much inventory not being free for long-term rentals, the price for long-term rentals has gone up a lot. This is the same inflation that we see in the expected vacation destinations but in non-traditional locations, like Portland and it's suburbs. AirBnB is supposedly built to empower individuals to post a rental here or there. What has been found is that it has enabled and encouraged individuals and companies with large inventories to convert long-term rentals into short-term ones. And that 15% that AirBnB takes is simply passed onto the consumer - which then affects the price of long-term rentals.
- parthdesai 8y agoDitto for Toronto
- rkul 8y agoDitto for Prague
- pyrale 8y agoAirbnb makes no effort to control the legal aspect of people letting appartments on their site, nor do they give tax agencies the means to collect taxes. In fact, at some point, they offered their european renters to collect earnings on nameless credit cards from Gibraltar. There is also the negative effect of renting prices going up, or having your neighbour replaced with 3-4 party organizers a month.
- golemiprague 8y agoWhich just comes to show that those regulations were stupid in the first place. Let's face it, a lot of the wealth they extract is out of big chain hotels, not the "community" and it is actually good that this wealth spread across the board rather than within few hotel chains.
- Tiktaalik 8y agoVancouver brought in regulations to try to regulate Airbnb into actually behaving like the service is intended, that is to ensure that people are simply renting out other rooms in their residence and are not buying condos with the explicit purpose of renting them out full time like virtual hotels. It's abundantly clear that Airbnb has zero interest in helping Vancouver enforce these rules. Vancouver has had to struggle to enforce its rules and is failing at doing so.
- jhall1468 8y agoIt's not Airbnb's responsibility to enforce the law. Full stop.
- mlthoughts2018 8y agoDemonstrating compliance with the law can be and often is a legal requirement itself.
- jhall1468 8y agoThere aren't any laws here for Airbnb to comply with. That's my point: the regulations are on the hosts. If the Government wants to regulate Airbnb, they need to pass legislation that requires Airbnb to do something. Exactly as they did with YouTube via DMCA.
- mlthoughts2018 8y agoYou are just incorrect. For example, Airbnb was required to comply with host registration and caps on short stay rentals in San Francisco (e.g. discussed in [0]). Airbnb is legally required to demonstrate its own compliance, separately from what laws govern hosts themselves. It seems premature to claim whether Airbnb is subject to more laws like this or not. Many cities have enacted new regulations or sued Airbnb over failures to comply with existing laws, and it seems like a complex legal issue still in the midst of being hashed out. [0]: https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Airbnb-loses-thousands-of-hosts-in-SF-as-12496624.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Airbnb-loses-th...
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- briandear 8y agoThey aren’t “extracting wealth” from communities any more than Booking.com does. In fact, AirBnB creates wealth. A person renting out a room on AirBnB is economically better off than if they didn’t.
- matchbok 8y agoIncorrect. They are removing apartments from the supply, thus raising rents. A couple airbnbs in a huge apartment building have many external costs that are carried by the other tenants.
- notacoward 8y ago> In fact, AirBnB creates wealth Building something creates wealth. Changing the channel through which payment occurs doesn't create wealth. The host's revenue comes from displacing hotels; the guest's savings come from increased rent for other tenants. If you consider the negative externalities imposed on neighbors, there'd be a stronger argument that AirBnB destroys wealth.