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I'm genuinely baffled that so few people in this thread see no value in Airbnb providing cheaper options for travelers. As a software engineer, one way I could

I'm genuinely baffled that so few people in this thread see no value in Airbnb providing cheaper options for travelers. As a software engineer, one way I could advance my career would be to move back to the Bay Area. An imperfect substitute, though, is visiting regularly to maintain the relationships I built when I lived there. (Indeed, I'm writing this from a plane while flying there.) Being able to stay in an Airbnb for half the cost of the hotel makes that more feasible.

edoloughlin 7y ago
Kind of a double-edged sword. It makes it easier to visit, but more difficult to live there if you do land a job: In New York, for instance, Airbnb directly accounted for a US$380 increase in median annual rent costs, according to a separate report from Prof. Wachsmuth last year that was funded, in part, by a hotel-industry organization.
Retric 7y ago
Things that hurt the local population to benifit other people are rarely well liked.
neonate 7y ago
It's similar to how you'd conclude no one was using Uber from reading the equivalent threads.
lykr0n 7y ago
Not many people want a lot of tourists in their town.
sarcher 7y ago
It's a mirror of the intracity highway issue. Access is improved for people who don't live in a specific location, and the externalities of this decision are dumped onto local citizens. The desirable location ends up hollowed-out, as no more geography is generated but instead the existing geography sliced away and allocated to visitors. They become destinations, more theme park than city. It's well accepted that the highway boom of twentieth century had a negative impact on city life. That's why the Big Dig put that city-cutting highway underground in Boston, and (one reason) why the viaduct in Seattle is going underground, and why the I-93 corridor in Massachusetts became a public transit route instead. Here's a longer list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeway_removal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeway_removal Transforming private residences into hotel rooms makes it easier to visit and harder to live. Acknowledging this doesn't mean people don't like Airbnb, it just means that both the positive and the negative impacts of their business model are being discussed.
- mrosett 7y ago
  For what it’s worth, I think I generate more positive externalities per day as a visitor than when I lived there.
  - ryanbrunner 7y ago
    Perhaps on balance, but those externalities aren't shared by the city as a whole - local businesses might benefit from you visiting, but individuals living in the city are probably overall negatively affected due to increased rent from tightened supply, lack of community due to increasingly more apartments being rented out to AirBnB users, and other negative effects.
deleted 7y ago
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edoloughlin 7y ago

Kind of a double-edged sword. It makes it easier to visit, but more difficult to live there if you do land a job: In New York, for instance, Airbnb directly accounted for a US$380 increase in median annual rent costs, according to a separate report from Prof. Wachsmuth last year that was funded, in part, by a hotel-industry organization.

Retric 7y ago

Things that hurt the local population to benifit other people are rarely well liked.

neonate 7y ago

It's similar to how you'd conclude no one was using Uber from reading the equivalent threads.

lykr0n 7y ago

Not many people want a lot of tourists in their town.

sarcher 7y ago

It's a mirror of the intracity highway issue. Access is improved for people who don't live in a specific location, and the externalities of this decision are dumped onto local citizens. The desirable location ends up hollowed-out, as no more geography is generated but instead the existing geography sliced away and allocated to visitors. They become destinations, more theme park than city. It's well accepted that the highway boom of twentieth century had a negative impact on city life. That's why the Big Dig put that city-cutting highway underground in Boston, and (one reason) why the viaduct in Seattle is going underground, and why the I-93 corridor in Massachusetts became a public transit route instead. Here's a longer list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeway_removal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeway_removal Transforming private residences into hotel rooms makes it easier to visit and harder to live. Acknowledging this doesn't mean people don't like Airbnb, it just means that both the positive and the negative impacts of their business model are being discussed.

mrosett 7y ago
For what it’s worth, I think I generate more positive externalities per day as a visitor than when I lived there.
- ryanbrunner 7y ago
  Perhaps on balance, but those externalities aren't shared by the city as a whole - local businesses might benefit from you visiting, but individuals living in the city are probably overall negatively affected due to increased rent from tightened supply, lack of community due to increasingly more apartments being rented out to AirBnB users, and other negative effects.

deleted 7y ago

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