4 ms·

couldn't AirBnB just restrict rentals to 90 nights/year in portland? or couldn't the city just look for rentals that are available for more than 90 nights/year?

by noer 12y ago

toomuchtodo 12y ago
Yes, but AirBNB would prefer to skirt regulations as long as possible in order to grow revenue and market share. See: Uber.
- JonFish85 12y ago
  To expand upon your point, AirBNB, much like Uber, can sit back a bit and pretend that this is just the fault of a couple of careless users as opposed to a systemic problem. This is the "brilliance" of their business models -- at least for now, they can claim that these people aren't their employees, that they're independent contractors or some such, so it's not the company's fault. They get all of the upside with limited legal liabilities (for now). The long play is to have an exit before the legal side of things catches up with them--the legal systems are slow, but AirBNB/Uber's growth rates are pretty fast. The current stockholders can cash in their billions with the exit, and it'll be the CEO's/shareholders' problem in the future if/when the legal system catches up to them.
qwerunf 12y ago
Yes, but then people will just hop from one service to another. 90 days on Airbnb, 90 days on VRBO, etc...
alex_duf 12y ago
Well, you can live in your place while renting part of it so that wouldn't work.
- bradleyjg 12y ago
  AirBnB collects that information as well ("entire place", "private room", "shared room".) They make no effort to filter out illegal listing, in spite of the fact that a decent (but not perfect) implementation would be utterly trivial. They are willfully leading a massive conspiracy to violate the law and the company and its executives ought to be held liable.
  - oh_sigh 12y ago
    Entirely trivial to implement the coding, and entirely a nightmare to implement and maintain the database which stores this information on the current laws of every locality in which airbnb operates.
    - breischl 12y ago
      But trivial to make the data available in a machine-readable format to the taxing authorities and let them do the legwork. Which is actually required, per TFA: "In addition, the city requires short-term rental companies like Airbnb to list the addresses of their rentals—information that could help the city crack down on hosts who don’t live in their apartments. The company has been reluctant to share information."
    - bradleyjg 12y ago
      That's why they get paid the big bucks. These aren't some guys in a garage, they have a $13B valuation. They can afford to hire some people to implement and maintain that database. In any event, we need not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. They can start with the low hanging fruit. In NYC they reportedly make millions of dollars a year. Certainly that justifies the cost of adding a line in a database? (<30 days, whole place, apartment).
    - bkor 12y ago
      Any other (big) international business follows local regulations and gets fined when they don't. That it is a nightmare: deal with it. I find it surprising how acceptable it is that certain company can ignore so many regulations, while another company has to abide by them. Unfair competition.
    - pyrophane 12y ago
      Not really. Large companies have to do that sort of thing all the time. Amazon collects sales tax, which is even more complicated. Airbnb is certainly sufficiently well funded to be expected to be able to deal with this sort of thing.

couldn't AirBnB just restrict rentals to 90 nights/year in portland? or couldn't the city just look for rentals that are available for more than 90 nights/year?

by noer 12y ago

couldn't AirBnB just restrict rentals to 90 nights/year in portland? or couldn't the city just look for rentals that are available for more than 90 nights/year?

toomuchtodo 12y ago

Yes, but AirBNB would prefer to skirt regulations as long as possible in order to grow revenue and market share. See: Uber.

JonFish85 12y ago
To expand upon your point, AirBNB, much like Uber, can sit back a bit and pretend that this is just the fault of a couple of careless users as opposed to a systemic problem. This is the "brilliance" of their business models -- at least for now, they can claim that these people aren't their employees, that they're independent contractors or some such, so it's not the company's fault. They get all of the upside with limited legal liabilities (for now). The long play is to have an exit before the legal side of things catches up with them--the legal systems are slow, but AirBNB/Uber's growth rates are pretty fast. The current stockholders can cash in their billions with the exit, and it'll be the CEO's/shareholders' problem in the future if/when the legal system catches up to them.

qwerunf 12y ago

Yes, but then people will just hop from one service to another. 90 days on Airbnb, 90 days on VRBO, etc...

alex_duf 12y ago

Well, you can live in your place while renting part of it so that wouldn't work.

bradleyjg 12y ago
AirBnB collects that information as well ("entire place", "private room", "shared room".) They make no effort to filter out illegal listing, in spite of the fact that a decent (but not perfect) implementation would be utterly trivial. They are willfully leading a massive conspiracy to violate the law and the company and its executives ought to be held liable.
- oh_sigh 12y ago
  Entirely trivial to implement the coding, and entirely a nightmare to implement and maintain the database which stores this information on the current laws of every locality in which airbnb operates.
  - breischl 12y ago
    But trivial to make the data available in a machine-readable format to the taxing authorities and let them do the legwork. Which is actually required, per TFA: "In addition, the city requires short-term rental companies like Airbnb to list the addresses of their rentals—information that could help the city crack down on hosts who don’t live in their apartments. The company has been reluctant to share information."
  - bradleyjg 12y ago
    That's why they get paid the big bucks. These aren't some guys in a garage, they have a $13B valuation. They can afford to hire some people to implement and maintain that database. In any event, we need not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. They can start with the low hanging fruit. In NYC they reportedly make millions of dollars a year. Certainly that justifies the cost of adding a line in a database? (<30 days, whole place, apartment).
  - bkor 12y ago
    Any other (big) international business follows local regulations and gets fined when they don't. That it is a nightmare: deal with it. I find it surprising how acceptable it is that certain company can ignore so many regulations, while another company has to abide by them. Unfair competition.
  - pyrophane 12y ago
    Not really. Large companies have to do that sort of thing all the time. Amazon collects sales tax, which is even more complicated. Airbnb is certainly sufficiently well funded to be expected to be able to deal with this sort of thing.