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70 percent of voters supported the new regulations. The new restrictions allow homeowners to rent out portions of their homes as long as they’re present during

70 percent of voters supported the new regulations. The new restrictions allow homeowners to rent out portions of their homes as long as they’re present during a guest’s stay. But they prohibit renters from listing their apartment and bar owners from renting a property on a short-term basis most of the year if they don’t live on-site, effectively banning large-scale Airbnb operators who had converted hundreds of condos and townhouses into makeshift hotels. It would, however, hurt residents who were making extra cash by renting out a second home for days at a time through Airbnb. It sounds reasonable to me. I used to love staying in Airbnb’s but can’t stand the cheapness of it all as of late due to them turning into pure investments and no longer real homes.

bnjms 7y ago
I was going to post this section too. It sounds like a good law making the best of what Air BnB is best at. As for the last problem those residents could be helped by allowing only 1+ month renting of homes which may help people who haven't been able to unload their house yet or who are new to an area. Either way the point is to discourage home owners from owning multiple houses.
jessriedel 7y ago
I love both kinds of AirBnBs.
cycrutchfield 7y ago
> I used to love staying in Airbnb’s but can’t stand the cheapness of it all as of late due to them turning into pure investments and no longer real homes. That's nice that you prefer one type of rental over the other. Why not allow both, so that others who prefer not having a homeowner intruding on their privacy don't need to deal with that?
- sleepychu 7y ago
  Those are called hotels :-)
- baot 7y ago
  Because local housing naturally has a limited supply making it a natural monopoly in addition to the fact that, since it's very difficult to live without housing, it is a one-sided market without alternatives. So, as much as you'd like to pretend it's just a matter of personal freedoms, bypassing housing codes via the guise of a tech company just enables negative externalities that restrict the personal freedoms of others. And the 'others' are the people who actually live there, making them more important than you.
  - chii 7y ago
    If large scale operations are what's being considered wrong, then why not target that specially? E.g, if you use short term rental on more than 1 property, then the taxation on the 2nd one is going to be larger and larger until it's no longer profitable. For people with just 1 investment property, they will still be able to rent it out short-term as it is possible today.
    - baot 7y ago
      That sounds like a lot of loophole-ridden bureaucracy to accommodate non-residents driving up the price of housing.
  - least 7y ago
    Local housing has an artificially limited supply, actually. There's an absolute limit on housing per unit of area, but we get nowhere close to approaching that limit anywhere in the US. The real issue is zoning laws prohibiting building of new housing or favoring single family homes over apartment buildings creating markets where supply doesn't increase. If you address this and allow for building of higher density housing, prices will decrease and services like AirBNB stop being as big of an issue. It doesn't help that local government politicians are frequently homeowners (and their constituents as well) that have a vested interest in keeping housing prices high. AirBNBs, apartment buildings, and high rises are going to negatively impact the value of their properties.
    - baot 7y ago
- tirpen 7y ago
  Then those who want to rent out their houses should be treated as hotels, taxed as hotels, regulated as hotels and obey zoning rules as hotels. Because they are in fact, hotels.
  - em-bee 7y ago
    they are not hotels, but serviced apartments. that is something different. i hate hotels. but i love serviced apartments. they have a kitchen, washing machine and everything i need to actually live there even for a short time. things that hotels don't have, or make very inconvenient to use.
    - sleepychu 7y ago
      Right, for you it's a great plus to have a single unit hotel but for the people who've just had a few single unit hotels opened outside their door/above their head/across the hall... we're wondering how these hotels managed to avoid the zoning laws!
      - em-bee 7y ago
        it's NOT a hotel! it's a short term apartment rental. i don't want a hotel. zoning laws are what they are, but that doesn't mean they are justified. long term rental, short term rentals, serviced apartments and hotels are all distinct categories. do not lump them together. they all address different needs for different people. zoning laws ought to take that into account. personally i find US zoning laws overly restrictive, but thats my opinion, and others may feel differently. what we should discuss is, what kind of zoning is appropriate, and for what reason. some people may like the mix of short and long term rentals, and some don't. it's a matter of taste. there is no objective standard that fits everyone.
        matchbok 7y ago
        Short-term rental shares much more (99%) in common with hotels than long-term renting. The benefits you get from a short-term place only exist because the externalities are paid by other renters in the building, the police, the government, etc. It's a sham.

bnjms 7y ago

I was going to post this section too. It sounds like a good law making the best of what Air BnB is best at. As for the last problem those residents could be helped by allowing only 1+ month renting of homes which may help people who haven't been able to unload their house yet or who are new to an area. Either way the point is to discourage home owners from owning multiple houses.

jessriedel 7y ago

I love both kinds of AirBnBs.

cycrutchfield 7y ago

> I used to love staying in Airbnb’s but can’t stand the cheapness of it all as of late due to them turning into pure investments and no longer real homes. That's nice that you prefer one type of rental over the other. Why not allow both, so that others who prefer not having a homeowner intruding on their privacy don't need to deal with that?

sleepychu 7y ago
Those are called hotels :-)
baot 7y ago
Because local housing naturally has a limited supply making it a natural monopoly in addition to the fact that, since it's very difficult to live without housing, it is a one-sided market without alternatives. So, as much as you'd like to pretend it's just a matter of personal freedoms, bypassing housing codes via the guise of a tech company just enables negative externalities that restrict the personal freedoms of others. And the 'others' are the people who actually live there, making them more important than you.
- chii 7y ago
  If large scale operations are what's being considered wrong, then why not target that specially? E.g, if you use short term rental on more than 1 property, then the taxation on the 2nd one is going to be larger and larger until it's no longer profitable. For people with just 1 investment property, they will still be able to rent it out short-term as it is possible today.
  - baot 7y ago
    That sounds like a lot of loophole-ridden bureaucracy to accommodate non-residents driving up the price of housing.
- least 7y ago
  Local housing has an artificially limited supply, actually. There's an absolute limit on housing per unit of area, but we get nowhere close to approaching that limit anywhere in the US. The real issue is zoning laws prohibiting building of new housing or favoring single family homes over apartment buildings creating markets where supply doesn't increase. If you address this and allow for building of higher density housing, prices will decrease and services like AirBNB stop being as big of an issue. It doesn't help that local government politicians are frequently homeowners (and their constituents as well) that have a vested interest in keeping housing prices high. AirBNBs, apartment buildings, and high rises are going to negatively impact the value of their properties.
  - baot 7y ago
tirpen 7y ago
Then those who want to rent out their houses should be treated as hotels, taxed as hotels, regulated as hotels and obey zoning rules as hotels. Because they are in fact, hotels.
- em-bee 7y ago
  they are not hotels, but serviced apartments. that is something different. i hate hotels. but i love serviced apartments. they have a kitchen, washing machine and everything i need to actually live there even for a short time. things that hotels don't have, or make very inconvenient to use.
  - sleepychu 7y ago
    Right, for you it's a great plus to have a single unit hotel but for the people who've just had a few single unit hotels opened outside their door/above their head/across the hall... we're wondering how these hotels managed to avoid the zoning laws!
    - em-bee 7y ago
      it's NOT a hotel! it's a short term apartment rental. i don't want a hotel. zoning laws are what they are, but that doesn't mean they are justified. long term rental, short term rentals, serviced apartments and hotels are all distinct categories. do not lump them together. they all address different needs for different people. zoning laws ought to take that into account. personally i find US zoning laws overly restrictive, but thats my opinion, and others may feel differently. what we should discuss is, what kind of zoning is appropriate, and for what reason. some people may like the mix of short and long term rentals, and some don't. it's a matter of taste. there is no objective standard that fits everyone.
      - matchbok 7y ago
        Short-term rental shares much more (99%) in common with hotels than long-term renting. The benefits you get from a short-term place only exist because the externalities are paid by other renters in the building, the police, the government, etc. It's a sham.