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0 pointsjandrese6y ago0 comments

I've definitely had that "If anybody asks you are guests of Tiffany" from the bearded guy doing the checkin. Apparently the building management was hostile to AirBNB, but the funny thing is that we saw the occupants of two other apartments on the same floor that were clearly people on vacation just like us. I had a strong suspicion that most of the building was bought up by foreign investors and turned into AirBNB rentals.

But the location was in walking distance of the major attractions in downtown and cost a half of what the local hotels were charging for "three" bedrooms (really two bedrooms and a closet with a bed crammed into it) vs. a single room with a pair of doubles at a hotel. It even had free parking, unlike the hotels that were charging $40-$50 per spot per day.

I mean yeah, it feels sketchy as hell, but the place is nicer and literally hundreds of dollars cheaper than a hotel.

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4 comments · 3 top-level

chachachoney6y ago· 1 in thread

>> I mean yeah, it feels sketchy as hell

Usually does when you are participating in fraud.

mapgrep6y ago

He said he was told at checkin, your options are pretty limited at that point. Especially when you have only soft/anecdotal evidence it is actually in some vague way not legit. “If anyone asks, you’re guests of Tiffany” is not a definitively incriminating statement, and the fact that building management is hostile to Airbnb doesn’t mean any lease or city code is being violated.

Ideally there would be an anonymous review system to let people disclose this sort of fuzzy evidence though because who wants to be party to a sketchy situation? Not only are there legit Airbnb’s, there are long-standing legit vacation rental markets (think summer cabins) where Airbnb is taking over from the old alternative sites. So it’s not like every Airbnb listing is circumventing the law.

Symbiote6y ago

> I had a strong suspicion that most of the building was bought up by foreign investors and turned into AirBNB rentals.

I push back against this in my own building. I obviously refuse to let random people into the building, and I've left through the back exit to avoid obvious AirBnB "friends"¹. (Although having read the article, I now see people are much more reluctant to leave a bad review than I thought.)

Short-term sublets are against the contract in my building. Apartments in nice European city centres are for people to live in, not visitors on a weekend break.

I've just reported the current listings to the owner of the building. Last year their leases were terminated pretty quickly :-)

¹ Or whatever bullshit term AirBnB's marketing uses.

puranjay6y ago

The place is cheaper precisely because it is sketchy as hell and doesn't have to spend to meet any of the requirements and regulations hotels are subject to.

Its only a matter of time before authorities catch on and it isn't so cheap anymore

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