6 ms·

Airbnb Preps for ‘Anti-Party’ Summer, Wants Neighbors to Snitch

28 points by htrp 3y ago

jqpabc123 3y ago
Why do a lot of people rent and go on vacation? To party and have fun. Seems like Airbnb is kinda at odds with one of it's main reasons for existing.
- tssva 3y ago
  Airbnb never existed for people to rent houses for 1 or 2 nights to throw large parties causing significant damage to the property.
  - zamnos 3y ago
    What word would you like to use for a gathering of a dozen or so adults, meeting for one or two nights (colloquially known as Friday and Saturday, because adults have jobs) where there is zero damage to the property? Because most people I know would call that a party. Most people I know also don't own ridiculous mansions, so have been using AirBNB to rent locations for these events (again, causing no property damage). They are fine switching to VRBO/whatever but these are expensive locations so it seems strange that Airbnb wouldn't want the revenue.
    - ehutch79 3y ago
      AirBNB was originally designed around renting a room in the place you live. More akin to couchsurfing then a hotel. So while it's pivoted, there are side effects they wern't really setup to think about. I wouldn't even say damage is the main problem, so much as neighborhoods being descended upon by random people who don't care about the neighbors or their sleep. Beyond just the summer, a lot of housing is being reallocated from long term, traditional tenants to airbnb, driving up rent prices.
      - mrguyorama 3y ago
        This was always a farce though. At the size they were trying to push themselves to be, there were never enough couch surfers to support that business. Just like how Uber's "just share rides" was always nonsense.
  - jrm4 3y ago
    This is...not a brilliant response. Cars never existed to be crashed, food never existed to be contaminated. It's (perhaps) Airbnb's job to anticipate this and act accordingly. Or perhaps the hosts?
    - ehutch79 3y ago
      This is a false equivalency. A better analogy is that hertz never existed to rent cars for off-road racing.
      - standardUser 3y ago
        Give me a break. Houses are routinely used for parties. It's like the main place parties happen. Cars are not routinely used for off-road racing. You use special, different cars for that. It's more like saying you can't use the radio in a rental car, despite the fact that this is the number one place people listen to radios and it is fully designed and ready for that exact purpose.
        HWR_14 3y ago
        Are the main parties happening in AirBnBs? It would never occur to me to throw a party in an area I didn't control and was responsible for a hugely overpriced damage charges.
        jqpabc123 3y ago
        I don't know about *main* parties but Airbnb should be able to figure this out if they had half a brain. Who typically rents a large house that can sleep 12 or more for a few nights at mega-bucks rate? An oligarch and his entourage? A polygamous family of devout Mormons? Or a bunch of friends looking to party together on vacation? Maybe it's just me but my money is on the latter more often than not. Look at the size of the house and it's location and most sensible people should be able to tell right away if it is a party palace or not. If so, a party should be no surprise --- and the security deposit should be set accordingly.
        3y ago
  - jqpabc123 3y ago
    As it currently exists, Airbnb rents lots of houses for 1 or 2 nights that are ideally suited for throwing a large party. If they don't want to do this, they can always stop. Or maybe demand an adequate damage deposit ... or a longer term lease. Otherwise, it seems they are at odds with a lot of their customer base.
biomcgary 3y ago
My setup encourage self-filtering. I bought a two-house property that is both my residence and an Airbnb. The listing indicates that I'm next door, so I have a quick response time for guest needs. Picture show the fence and large amount of space between the two houses. Whenever people do inquire about proximity (rarely), they never book, which is great. Never had a complaint from neighbors even though an Airbnb two doors down (with a remote owner) gets them regularly. If all hosts/property owners were required to live within a very short distance of the property (and a cap on total # of properties, I think the changes would improve Airbnb (but open a massive market opportunity for competitors).
- charlie0 3y ago
  100% agree. It would also stop investors from coming in and buying up all the properties.
  - red-iron-pine 3y ago
    ...or you just by the whole row / entire block. Or pull a Vancouver, where you buy a house, put your do-nothing nephew in it, then use that as an excuse to pick up more property nearby.
DiscourseFan 3y ago
https://archive.is/kydCM https://archive.is/kydCM
DiscourseFan 3y ago
I just feel like the more likely scenario, when you have an 8 bedroom house listed for $1,000 a night, is not that some large, extraordinarily wealthy family will rent it out for a weekend getaway, but rather a group of 20-30 adults who've pooled their money together. I would even argue that these mansions or mcmansions are seeing more value as venues for parties than as actual living spaces in 90% of cases. It's just like in San Francisco: all the houses are owned by investment firms and sit there completely uninhabited. The same here, most of these large mansions are AirBnB are just taking up space. At least when people throw parties, that space is actually being utilized for a social purpose.
- schwartzworld 3y ago
  One anecdote: we rented a place like this (on VRBO.com) for our wedding. We paid $8000 for the week. Had the wedding on the large lawn. All of our families stayed over in the house and a bunch of friends crashed on the actual wedding night as well. The 8000 hurt a lot less considering it meant lodging, and not using a wedding venue saved a ton of money on food and drinks.
  - charlie0 3y ago
    What's with venues charging extra for weddings?
    - tekla 3y ago
      Everyone is aware of how deep the western wedding propaganda goes and knows people will pay 10x for no good reason during weddings.
    - schwartzworld 3y ago
      Even without the extra wedding cost, retail prices on food and wine are going to be cheaper than going to any venue that is hoping to profit on those things. We got our champagne at trader Joe's for 6 bucks a bottle.
      - 3y ago
tapvt 3y ago
I live in a nice neighborhood, but am a long-term tenant. One night, late, there was a huge party at a nearby short-term rental. I asked, politely, for them to turn the music down so I could sleep. They responded by throwing anything they could get their hands on over the fence, including cinder blocks, bricks and the like. So, I’m not a huge fan of any of that. Thankfully, it was an isolated incident.
- nate_meurer 3y ago
  Do you know the owner? Most owners will take a hard line on renters doing that kind of shit. VRBO lets them take the security deposit with few questions asked. Otherwise, if it happens again, get photos and send them AirBnB. The renter will be banned from the platform, and depending on their response, the owner could be in trouble as well.
whoomp12342 3y ago
can airbnb just go away so people can afford to buy homes again?
charlie0 3y ago
Good. Parties are bad business for everyone except the partiers, they generate a lot of noise for the neighbors and put much more wear and tear in everything. Still, I see Airbnb allowing these on a case by case basis. The problem is that event centers charge and arm and a leg, especially so if it's a wedding. As long as noise can't bother neighbors and the owner is aware of the party, I don't see a problem.

28 points by htrp 3y ago

Why do a lot of people rent and go on vacation? To party and have fun. Seems like Airbnb is kinda at odds with one of it's main reasons for existing.

tssva 3y ago
Airbnb never existed for people to rent houses for 1 or 2 nights to throw large parties causing significant damage to the property.
- zamnos 3y ago
  What word would you like to use for a gathering of a dozen or so adults, meeting for one or two nights (colloquially known as Friday and Saturday, because adults have jobs) where there is zero damage to the property? Because most people I know would call that a party. Most people I know also don't own ridiculous mansions, so have been using AirBNB to rent locations for these events (again, causing no property damage). They are fine switching to VRBO/whatever but these are expensive locations so it seems strange that Airbnb wouldn't want the revenue.
  - ehutch79 3y ago
    AirBNB was originally designed around renting a room in the place you live. More akin to couchsurfing then a hotel. So while it's pivoted, there are side effects they wern't really setup to think about. I wouldn't even say damage is the main problem, so much as neighborhoods being descended upon by random people who don't care about the neighbors or their sleep. Beyond just the summer, a lot of housing is being reallocated from long term, traditional tenants to airbnb, driving up rent prices.
    - mrguyorama 3y ago
      This was always a farce though. At the size they were trying to push themselves to be, there were never enough couch surfers to support that business. Just like how Uber's "just share rides" was always nonsense.
- jrm4 3y ago
  This is...not a brilliant response. Cars never existed to be crashed, food never existed to be contaminated. It's (perhaps) Airbnb's job to anticipate this and act accordingly. Or perhaps the hosts?
  - ehutch79 3y ago
    This is a false equivalency. A better analogy is that hertz never existed to rent cars for off-road racing.
    - standardUser 3y ago
      Give me a break. Houses are routinely used for parties. It's like the main place parties happen. Cars are not routinely used for off-road racing. You use special, different cars for that. It's more like saying you can't use the radio in a rental car, despite the fact that this is the number one place people listen to radios and it is fully designed and ready for that exact purpose.
      - HWR_14 3y ago
        Are the main parties happening in AirBnBs? It would never occur to me to throw a party in an area I didn't control and was responsible for a hugely overpriced damage charges.
        jqpabc123 3y ago
        I don't know about *main* parties but Airbnb should be able to figure this out if they had half a brain. Who typically rents a large house that can sleep 12 or more for a few nights at mega-bucks rate? An oligarch and his entourage? A polygamous family of devout Mormons? Or a bunch of friends looking to party together on vacation? Maybe it's just me but my money is on the latter more often than not. Look at the size of the house and it's location and most sensible people should be able to tell right away if it is a party palace or not. If so, a party should be no surprise --- and the security deposit should be set accordingly.
      - 3y ago
- jqpabc123 3y ago
  As it currently exists, Airbnb rents lots of houses for 1 or 2 nights that are ideally suited for throwing a large party. If they don't want to do this, they can always stop. Or maybe demand an adequate damage deposit ... or a longer term lease. Otherwise, it seems they are at odds with a lot of their customer base.

biomcgary 3y ago

My setup encourage self-filtering. I bought a two-house property that is both my residence and an Airbnb. The listing indicates that I'm next door, so I have a quick response time for guest needs. Picture show the fence and large amount of space between the two houses. Whenever people do inquire about proximity (rarely), they never book, which is great. Never had a complaint from neighbors even though an Airbnb two doors down (with a remote owner) gets them regularly. If all hosts/property owners were required to live within a very short distance of the property (and a cap on total # of properties, I think the changes would improve Airbnb (but open a massive market opportunity for competitors).

charlie0 3y ago
100% agree. It would also stop investors from coming in and buying up all the properties.
- red-iron-pine 3y ago
  ...or you just by the whole row / entire block. Or pull a Vancouver, where you buy a house, put your do-nothing nephew in it, then use that as an excuse to pick up more property nearby.

DiscourseFan 3y ago

https://archive.is/kydCM https://archive.is/kydCM

DiscourseFan 3y ago

I just feel like the more likely scenario, when you have an 8 bedroom house listed for $1,000 a night, is not that some large, extraordinarily wealthy family will rent it out for a weekend getaway, but rather a group of 20-30 adults who've pooled their money together. I would even argue that these mansions or mcmansions are seeing more value as venues for parties than as actual living spaces in 90% of cases. It's just like in San Francisco: all the houses are owned by investment firms and sit there completely uninhabited. The same here, most of these large mansions are AirBnB are just taking up space. At least when people throw parties, that space is actually being utilized for a social purpose.

schwartzworld 3y ago
One anecdote: we rented a place like this (on VRBO.com) for our wedding. We paid $8000 for the week. Had the wedding on the large lawn. All of our families stayed over in the house and a bunch of friends crashed on the actual wedding night as well. The 8000 hurt a lot less considering it meant lodging, and not using a wedding venue saved a ton of money on food and drinks.
- charlie0 3y ago
  What's with venues charging extra for weddings?
  - tekla 3y ago
    Everyone is aware of how deep the western wedding propaganda goes and knows people will pay 10x for no good reason during weddings.
  - schwartzworld 3y ago
    Even without the extra wedding cost, retail prices on food and wine are going to be cheaper than going to any venue that is hoping to profit on those things. We got our champagne at trader Joe's for 6 bucks a bottle.
    - 3y ago

tapvt 3y ago

I live in a nice neighborhood, but am a long-term tenant. One night, late, there was a huge party at a nearby short-term rental. I asked, politely, for them to turn the music down so I could sleep. They responded by throwing anything they could get their hands on over the fence, including cinder blocks, bricks and the like. So, I’m not a huge fan of any of that. Thankfully, it was an isolated incident.

nate_meurer 3y ago
Do you know the owner? Most owners will take a hard line on renters doing that kind of shit. VRBO lets them take the security deposit with few questions asked. Otherwise, if it happens again, get photos and send them AirBnB. The renter will be banned from the platform, and depending on their response, the owner could be in trouble as well.

whoomp12342 3y ago

can airbnb just go away so people can afford to buy homes again?

charlie0 3y ago

Good. Parties are bad business for everyone except the partiers, they generate a lot of noise for the neighbors and put much more wear and tear in everything. Still, I see Airbnb allowing these on a case by case basis. The problem is that event centers charge and arm and a leg, especially so if it's a wedding. As long as noise can't bother neighbors and the owner is aware of the party, I don't see a problem.