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Once the various quarantine measures have been lifted, and international tourism and travel rebound, I am hypothesising that cities will want to know (and control) where (foreign) tourists stay in a city, and that renting out rooms/apartments to tourists without a specific license will be banned.
HN: your views?
However, AirBnB's original plan was to explode into cities before governments had a chance to react, and that once governments reacted they would have an entrenched, powerful constituency (landlords) who would help fight for them at the local level.
That advantage is now gone. All cities now have a strong opinion over whether they think AirBnB is a good thing, so as this pandemic nears completion there will be plenty of cities who will outright ban AirBnB, and any disruption that may have previously been caused by this action before coronavirus is now a moot point.
Housing shortages in our area are a huge problem - any apartment complex proposal dies in city hall, so they are essentially banned. The only source of new units are hotels. Our units are slightly more expensive than renting, but still an amazing deal over an equivalent hotel. And a quarter of the cost goes to local taxes (we're taxed at a higher rate than the hotels, btw).
Coronavirus has dropped Airbnb rates across the board - but occupancy has been about the same (market pricing in action). We have noticed a ton more interest in long term rentals (a. because it's so cheap, and b. a lot of people have bizarre living situations right now), so if anything income is a lot more consistent right now.
Airbnb's cut isn't that affected. It's still bizarre how much they make off of a unit considering how little they provide. Their insurance never pays out - their website and app are embarrassingly bad.
Then stop using them. There are plenty of other options.
Finding rent here is mission impossible, most landlords will happily rent to you for a contract that ends at the start of the summer, then you have to figure out where to live for 3 months.
Housing prices are impossibly expensive compared to local salaries, and landlords would rather keep a place empty for an occasional airbnb than have a full-time tenant (that has a lot of legal protection regarding eviction).
My prediction is that this summer season is dead, and that many places will go back to regular renting, I hope they never go back to Airbnb again.
If not, please do!
I think it's more nuanced than that. I've stayed in AirBnBs that were clearly being run as a major source of income by people who otherwise didn't have many options for income (remote areas, Native reservations, etc.). I remember staying in a spare structure in the Navajo nation a few years back, it was run by an elderly couple who were looking after their 3 granddaughters and literally had no other way to make income to support themselves or the girls. They said AirBnB and a prepaid cell phone had literally turned around their entire economic situation.
Separately, it has enabled many of my friends who are on the lower end of the economic spectrum to afford to go places with their family as AirBnBs are usually cheaper than hotels and generally larger and often include kitchens (further saving costs eating out while traveling). One of my friends in particular (in his 40s) took his first out-of-state family vacation ever due to this. Before this they never ventured further than a few hours drive from where they lived because they simply couldn't afford it.
I also entirely agree that they need to be better regulated, and that they can have a deleterious effect on local housing prices. Japan seems to have taken some serious steps towards finding a good balance of regulation and availability for these things. On a trip to Japan we stayed in hotels and AirBnBs and in every case the BnBs were cheaper, larger, and generally better than the hotels. However, they're only allowed to use them as short-term rentals for 180 days per year, must be licensed and have other restrictions on when they can be used. [1]
I don't know if Japan's approach is the right one, but the number of AirBnBs available in Japan make me think that it hasn't destroyed the legitimate marketplace for this type of side income (where AirBnB is at its best) while also making it much harder for people to soak up the local rental market as speculators with "accommodations" being used to reduce risk in their investment portfolio.
1 - https://www.asiaone.com/asia/airbnb-says-forced-cancel-booki...
> It is extremely classist. Only something that middle class or higher can use
So you think any business which isn't affordable to everyone should be shut down?
This sounds like a pretty convincing argument against laws that are extremely lopsided in favor of tenants. If you make renting out property an extremely high-risk proposition, of course property owners are going to prefer something less risky.
Feeling safe in your rented apartment from unjustified evictions, doubling rent without notice, or landlord trespassing etc.. is an absolute must.
During a recession, people look for ways to economize, and one way is to downgrade housing. For example, people who did live alone will get a roommate, people will move to a smaller place, and some younger people will move back in with their parents.
If this does happen, then occupancy rates (for normal leases, not short-term rentals) will drop in many places, making landlords more interested in alternative ways to fill empty units. That could work in Airbnb's favor.
In a recession, people would also have less disposable income for travel. That will hurt Airbnb but it could also help them because travelers could prefer it as a cheaper alternative to a hotel. During recessions, budget-oriented businesses (like discount stores) tend to do better.
if they can go cockroach mode, and reduce spending (should be easy with discipline and layoffs), they’ll still be a multi billion dollar company in 2021-2022.
and i say this thinking they’re ultimately a cancer on society.
WeWork is dead. The main question now is what specific necromancy the venture capitalists will be performing on its corpse.
At some level you have to be angry at consumers who use and defend these businesses, and be angry at employees who agree to work for them and smugly believe it’s all untouchable becuz tech.
If you are an engineer for Airbnb, Bird, Uber, Lyft, etc., you are the problem.
You have to be responsible for the business model of the jobs you take. What is the value proposition? Not just internal to the company, but to the external world.
Until rank and file engineers start saying no to these jobs, nothing is going to get better. We have to say no to horrible working conditions like open plan offices, braindead infantilizing office spaces where video games and catered lunches matter more than basic health benefits, severance pay, and work life balance.
It’s not going to get better until we just refuse to participate in these sham businesses and we stop glorifying some manifest destiny founder trope as if it’s worthy of admiration or good for the world.
We will probably see a cursory medical test at borders. This will become more complex over time as the technology develops.
Cities (and tax-paying hosts) make a ton of tax revenue from AirBnb, much of which wouldn’t otherwise exist. I don’t expect any total shutdowns.
Aha, sure. They pay next to nothing in tax in Europe. Some individuals pay more tax than airbnb while making 10 times less money.
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https...
1. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-27/a-guide-t...
Now for Airbnb I am taking the reverse and contraion position that they will actually come out this ahead of most hospitality companies. Simple they don't own any assets and have the ability to ratchet down or up depending on the macro-environment. Also let's be honest here is that host will come back as its a another way for them to monetize their assets especially the economic situation right now.
"Investors" taking away from the single-family market in order to have airbnb-style rentals probably wasn't at the forefront of the founders' minds when they started it but they've done nothing to try to bring attention to it and the impact it is having on people who are ready to make the move from being a renter to being a homeowner.
Does it take the thousands of people they have to support a couple of apps and a website + user support? No.
Also: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headli...
In thr meanwhile, it will be transformed to a platform for normal, long term rents
(If anything, trusted, and possibly provably tested renters from airbnb will be preferred )
