4 ms·

I had a really sketchy experience as a guest this winter that made me worry about AirBnB. I spent a few months living in the Haight with a delightful German wo

by gozmike 13y ago

I had a really sketchy experience as a guest this winter that made me worry about AirBnB. I spent a few months living in the Haight with a delightful German woman who supported her photography career by renting her spare rooms in a gorgeous clean apartment. For a while, the arrangement worked out pretty well. That is, until I ran into one of her neighbours in the stairwell. I made friendly conversation with him and he asked if I was staying at her place through AirBnB. I thought nothing of it at the time. That night, while greeting my "landlady", I told her I met the neighbour. Her heart sank and she chastised me for talking to her neighbours (I had been living at her place for a month or so!). Turns out that many renters agreements in SF prevent the tenant from earning a profit on their rental. Long story short, the neighbour I spoke to ended up not being so nice to her and is causing significant problems for her. She may lose her rent-controlled apartment (and thus her livelihood) all because I chatted with a neighbour in the stairwell.

DanBlake 13y ago
And for good reason. Rent control should not allow tenants to make a /profit/ on their apartments. The current SFRB law basically states you can only 'pro rata' charge what you charge. So if you pay 1k a month for rent and you are renting it out for half the month the most you can charge is 500. Or if its a 2 bedroom and you rent 1 bedroom, you can charge 50% of that. Not that that matters. You are basically saying you parked in a firezone while robbing a bank. You are already doing something against the law so the additional methods dont matter much.
- gozmike 13y ago
  Totally. It screws the landlord and drives up the overall cost of housing. That said, this AirBnB host was supporting her (very frugal) lifestyle on the profits from this rental. It hurts to know that I may have played a part in undoing that.

by gozmike 13y ago

DanBlake 13y ago

And for good reason. Rent control should not allow tenants to make a /profit/ on their apartments. The current SFRB law basically states you can only 'pro rata' charge what you charge. So if you pay 1k a month for rent and you are renting it out for half the month the most you can charge is 500. Or if its a 2 bedroom and you rent 1 bedroom, you can charge 50% of that. Not that that matters. You are basically saying you parked in a firezone while robbing a bank. You are already doing something against the law so the additional methods dont matter much.

gozmike 13y ago
Totally. It screws the landlord and drives up the overall cost of housing. That said, this AirBnB host was supporting her (very frugal) lifestyle on the profits from this rental. It hurts to know that I may have played a part in undoing that.