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the biggest issue I see with Airbnb is that it favors a small subset of tenants and makes it worse for pretty much everyone else. Running an Airbnb is insanely

the biggest issue I see with Airbnb is that it favors a small subset of tenants and makes it worse for pretty much everyone else. Running an Airbnb is insanely profitable for the tenant and it is pretty much hell for everyone else living next to it. Ask neighbours of Airbnbs, they will all complain that it brings a lot of noise, people partying in the middle of the night etc. My solution to this is that the cities should tax Airbnbs at a very high level. Probably upwards of 50%. There is a reason why hotels are built in specific places in cities, and why they have a frontdesks etc.

DoingIsLearning 7y ago
I would argue the problem (at least in Europe) would go away if you were only allowed to list rooms in the house you are actually living in (which I think was the original motivation behind Airbnb).
- distances 7y ago
  Indeed. Full-time AirBnb rentals should of course be regarded as hotels, with associated regulations and zoning requirements. It's a bit baffling to me why cities aren't doing this.
  - pintxo 7y ago
    Berlin does it. On paper. You need a permit, which you are unlikely to get to rent out a complete apartment (or more then 50% of your place). The same law also states that a flat cannot go unrented for longer than 3 months. You would also need a permit here. As far as I understood it, the problem here is enforcement/execution, which is basically Berlins root problem.
    - DoingIsLearning 7y ago
      But if Airbnb was serious about sustainability and respecting local law they would either ban whole house listings or request proof of said permit in Berlin. Even if they were motivated to do this, it would simply wipe out a very large percentage of rooms available which would make zero business sense for airbnb. This is again more evidence of the lack of sustainability of their business model in the current form factor.
      - pintxo 7y ago
        The law actually requires the hosts to include the permit id in the offer...

DoingIsLearning 7y ago

I would argue the problem (at least in Europe) would go away if you were only allowed to list rooms in the house you are actually living in (which I think was the original motivation behind Airbnb).

distances 7y ago
Indeed. Full-time AirBnb rentals should of course be regarded as hotels, with associated regulations and zoning requirements. It's a bit baffling to me why cities aren't doing this.
- pintxo 7y ago
  Berlin does it. On paper. You need a permit, which you are unlikely to get to rent out a complete apartment (or more then 50% of your place). The same law also states that a flat cannot go unrented for longer than 3 months. You would also need a permit here. As far as I understood it, the problem here is enforcement/execution, which is basically Berlins root problem.
  - DoingIsLearning 7y ago
    But if Airbnb was serious about sustainability and respecting local law they would either ban whole house listings or request proof of said permit in Berlin. Even if they were motivated to do this, it would simply wipe out a very large percentage of rooms available which would make zero business sense for airbnb. This is again more evidence of the lack of sustainability of their business model in the current form factor.
    - pintxo 7y ago
      The law actually requires the hosts to include the permit id in the offer...