Fuck Airbnb

[greenman]

-

[greenman]

I certainly hope he does exist, the story would be much less amusing if he doesn't.

[BlodwynPig]

Ah, he does exist but is still archetypal. President of Frontline Communications -  company with a vague modus operandii

[Icehaven]

Actually the least believable thing about the whole story is that not only were the renter and several of his friends still there when he got back, but they were frantically trying to clean what was apparently a bomb site, and then stayed and took a verbal bashing from him with some even calling their own parents on his request. It wasn't some innocent party that got out of hand, it was advertised online and had an entry fee so I highly doubt the enterprising soul who organised it gave a flying fuck about the state of the place afterwards, and it's even less likely any of his guests/friends/paying customers would have stuck around to help clean up and get a telling off. I wouldn't be surprised if he added that bit to try to make it look slightly less like he got completely fucked over and the guy got clean away.

[Blue Jam]

One of the flats in my block was sold recently, and this morning I noticed a new key box outside. It now looks like we've got six Airbnbs in a block of 12 flats. Fuck Airbnb.

[Puce Moment]

Came across this whilst searching around last week:
https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/7254398

[Sebastian Cobb]

My fiancee and I generally use it on holiday and have mostly had good experiences for good prices. 

My problem is that if you stay in a hotel you save a lot more precious time for only a slightly higher price, since you are always stuck out somwhere that isn't the centre, and since you're spending so much money on a break, you should spend a little more money on being right there where you're holidaying.

Whether it is bad for the local economy: the argument goes that since Airbnb is so successful at attracting applicants that landlords will be able to rent out rooms to travellers at a better rate of profit than merely renting the flat to a person living there; that this is bad because people who live somewhere permanently have more right to a property than someone who wants it for a less permanent amount of time, or rather just a few days. There's also the argument from "insufficient paperwork" which seems to me a motivated attack, not a principled one (who thinks that buskers should pay taxes or be forced to get a license?)

Firstly, I doubt the premise: will Airbnb remain popular enough over the long-term to make it a viable income stream for landlords in comparison to the sure thing of receiving monthly rent? Will it remain attractive to the landlords as a going concern, given the behaviour of short-term stayers? I've noticed that in Paris, they are almost all asking for massive deposits - no doubt in reaction to hellraisers leaving their property in a state, entailing unpredictable costs which they do not have the resources or knowhow of the big hotels to account for.

Secondly, I doubt the judgement: do out-of-towners deserve accommodation less than people who live there? It is a kind of hypocrisy for locals to benefit from a local economy supported by tourists, but to want those tourists to have absolutely 0 impact on housing prices - given that they are human beings who need to be housed somewhere for the duration of their stay. What's more, it is expected that tourists will pay more - a hell of a lot more - for their accomodation, and Airbnb is no exception. For everything the tourist takes from the city, he gladly pays more than adequate compensation for. Meanwhile, if he was to suddenly leave en masse, though housing prices might plummet, so would employment in the city.

Thirdly, I think it is wrong to believe that money that goes to Airbnb landlords - surely those more likely to be locals - by tourists is any worse than the money of those same people going to hotel chains - who surely will not be. And that's ignoring all the "true" Airbnbers who are merely waiters or teachers or students with a spare room.

Airbnb merely exacerbates the problems due to a paucity of affordable housing (both rental and to buy) and a lack of regulation of bastard landlords. The problem is bigger than Airbnb and doesn't go away if you ban it.

[Dex Sawash]

Came across this whilst searching around last week:
https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/7254398

Oilfield electricity?

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

It's an interesting discussion alright, because there are many European cities with plenty of space and good transport connections. Perhaps those cities should regulate to make sure AirBnbs are available on the periphery but not in the centre, keep as much as possible residential.

Ultimately too many people have too much money to make to worry about the effects of pushing poor people further away from their roots and place of work.

[Blue Jam]

Came across this whilst searching around last week:
https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/7254398

If you stayed there you would definitely get murdered.

[ToneLa]

Airbnb: the worst of gentrification, without the investment!

[Ferris]

There's an apartment block near me that is so riddled with Airbnb "buy to let" places that google thinks it is a hotel and offers to help to book a room.

Bet it's fucking miserable to actually live there.

Edit: don't know why I'm being coy - it is "The Ice Condos" in downtown Toronto. Everyone who bought a place was a non-resident buy to let wanker trying to flip their place for profit and abuse Airbnb in the meantime. Except of course, that doesn't work if everyone does it. Zero sympathy for them really.

[Ray Travez]

One cheeky cunt was advertising a patch of grass that you could put your tent on, in the middle of a housing estate.

That's cute. I saw a guy advertising a tent to sleep in in Tenerife. Price seemed reasonable to camp in someone's garden. I read on- turned out you don't stay in the garden; you pay your money, he hands you the tent, you fuck off and find a campsite. Can't remember the exact price, but it was at least a tenner a night.

[Icehaven]

This might be an obvious thing I just haven't realised but all these enormous towering blocks of luxury flats that have been thrown up pretty much everywhere for the last 15/20 years or so anyway but recession-defyingly continue to be in certain places (definitely in Birmingham anyway), and make you wonder how can there possibly be enough demand for so very many hideously expensive yet often tiny flats -  are a significant proportion of them, or even a majority in some cases, going to be Airbnbs? 

[Paul Calf]

This might be an obvious thing I just haven't realised but all these enormous towering blocks of luxury flats that have been thrown up pretty much everywhere for the last 15/20 years or so anyway but recession-defyingly continue to be in certain places (definitely in Birmingham anyway), and make you wonder how can there possibly be enough demand for so very many hideously expensive yet often tiny flats -  are a significant proportion of them, or even a majority in some cases, going to be Airbnbs? 

Wealth shelters, I'd guess. Certainly in Manchester and London there are thousands of empty flats that were bought specifically with the plan of never being used.

[Icehaven]

Is property law completely different in America or is this person freely admitting they illegally sublet a flat through Airbnb for years?
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/apr/07/airbnb-renting-freelance-career-home

And given she was apparently making 3 times what the rent was, why wasn't the landlord doing it themselves?

[Sebastian Cobb]

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/hidden-camera-cork-airbnb-listing-14238119

[EbbyVale]

Is property law completely different in America or is this person freely admitting they illegally sublet a flat through Airbnb for years?
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/apr/07/airbnb-renting-freelance-career-home

There's no national property law. It's by state and, more significantly for Airbnb, municipality. However, Chicago did apparently get an ordinance (a seemingly very complicated ordinance) that went into force in 2017 requiring Airbnb hosts to register, which probably that article author did not. It does sound like she was in violation of her lease, but that's just a contractual breach.

[GMTV]

So many people rail against big business, capitalism, tories etc. Then without a hint of hypocrisy use Airbnb, Uber etc without a second thought.

[GMTV]

Having looked at car emissions, diesel for example, the per passenger output isn't that much more, while long haul journeys can end up less efficient than flying. For example, my Dad has always driven to France and Italy instead of flying.

As I don't own a car or need to commute I feel - if not okay with the 14-20 flights I take a year, then relieved I don't drive every day, in the knowledge of how much damage that causes.

Nihilistic ecocide is a hysterical term to aim at most people who go on holiday abroad maybe 2-3 times a year at most, yet will produce more carbon many times over during their day by day activities.

It's also in my opinion up to government and corporations to act to subsidise green tech and outlaw bad tech. As consumers, most people will continue taking the actions that give them their desires while paying the bills, so guilt-tripping only works up to a point.

In absolute terms you'll be doing a fair bit of damage.

Interesting to see a fairly tortured logic to justify partaking in a fairly ecologically damaging activity.

Not taking any moral high ground here. I think all of us in a developed country are causing damage. I feel guilty about my contribution to it.

[Sebastian Cobb]

So many people rail against big business, capitalism, tories etc. Then without a hint of hypocrisy use Airbnb, Uber etc without a second thought.

And then moan like fuck when these pseudo-unregulated companies don't help them when something goes wrong.

I saw someone on twitter trying to shame Airbnb and kick up a stink because their hosts cat pissed all over their bag.

[Icehaven]

And then moan like fuck when these pseudo-unregulated companies don't help them when something goes wrong.

I saw someone on twitter trying to shame Airbnb and kick up a stink because their hosts cat pissed all over their bag.

In that article I posted above the author claimed one of her guests rang her, furious, because she was staying there with her 7 year old son and they'd found a copy of the Q'uran in the apartment. She apparently yelled "what am I supposed to tell my son?" and proceeded to give it a 1 star review and said it wasn't suitable for children.

[Mrs Wogans lemon drizzle]

I hate it. Absolute worst of capitalism. Is your flat empty for a bit? Why not subject your neighbours to hours of drunken noise from some random arseholes every weekend! After all, it's more dosh. Urghhhhhh

Agreed.  I've just moved to Edinburgh and didn't quite understand the scale of the problem before moving here.

I think part of the issue is that this company is so far removed from what's going actually happening on the ground as a direct result of it's "product".  Airbnb is disruptive in every sense of the word.

[idunnosomename]

Nearly every AirBnB I've stayed in was a spare room of someone's house and I was glad to bunk there

Perhaps I'm just not staying in cities where it's more lucrative and hijacked by cunts as just about everything is in capitalism

[Sebastian Cobb]

Nearly every AirBnB I've stayed in was a spare room of someone's house and I was glad to bunk there

Perhaps I'm just not staying in cities where it's more lucrative and hijacked by cunts as just about everything is in capitalism

Whenever I've looked into that it's not been significantly cheaper than an actual bnb or hotel, which would mean I don't have the horror of coming back to someone's actual gaff and having to talk to them, possibly while pissed.

[king_tubby]

So many people rail against big business, capitalism, tories etc. Then without a hint of hypocrisy use Airbnb, Uber etc without a second thought.

[idunnosomename]

Basically every time you "check in" to an AirBnB it's a tedious tour round their house ("uhh, yeah, there's air everywhere, with oxygen in it, which you can breathe, if you need") then finally they give you the keys and you're like oh thanks and you can go out and get pissed as normal.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Basically every time you "check in" to an AirBnB it's a tedious tour round their house ("uhh, yeah, there's air everywhere, with oxygen in it, which you can breathe, if you need") then finally they give you the keys and you're like oh thanks and you can go out and get piss in their sinks and up their curtains as normal.

[Icehaven]

Had my first and probably last stay in an Airbnb this weekend (don't hate me too much, I didn't book it, pay for it or stay in it for long). It was weird, we couldn't work out if the owner actually lived there or not as there was food in the kitchen and some belongings in one or two cupboards/drawers but not many. The place was done out like actual B&Bs with an info pack, towels in the rooms, chocolates on pillows, signs stuck everywhere about how to use the washing machine and shower etc. The thing that completely aligned with many criticisms of Airbnb I've heard about though was that the info pack mentioned that there was a flat in the basement (under the huge kitchen/diner and the living room) so to be mindful of noise, parking etc. It was a 6 bedroom house that could sleep at least 13 people, and if you're going to pay what it costs to rent a house that size it's most likely because you actually need to (there were 12 of us) While we were generally quiet (no loud music or shouting etc.) there's only so quiet that that many people can be, and I'd imagine plenty of Airbnb-ers are a little less considerate. Also it was a fuck-off huge house in an area where there's a massive shortage of (particularly affordable) housing. We reckoned it had to be worth at least a million, possibly considerably more (1 and 2 bed flats over shops half a mile down the road were worth £250-300,000), and it was dizzying knowing whoever owns that place potentially rakes in several thousand a month on it most of the year, as well as owning it in the first place.

I felt quite uncomfortable there tbh, which was partly because the guy who organised it insisted he didn't need any money from me as without going into tedious detail I only ended up staying there due to other people's travel plans, so I didn't really feel I could exactly 'make myself at home', but also because I agree with a lot of the criticisms of Airbnb we've covered here. I'm generally not a very principled person, if doing (or not doing) something makes my life easier or I want to do it (or not do it) I'm not usually over troubled by the moral objections (within reason and the law of course, I'm not a total monster) but I actually almost felt guilty, like I was demonstrably part of an obvious problem (which being a Western consumer I always am, but usually just because of everyday life.) Or maybe I just begrudged the rich cow her massive house, who knows.

[imitationleather]

The flat next door to mine has turned into an AirBnB. Laaaaame.

I am probably going to become a proper curtain-twitching NIMBY about the young people having fun at all hours now. The woman in the other flat on the landing has been on at us to complain to the building manager whenever there's noise but I am just not the complaining type. I am far more about internalising all my rage and dying of a stress-related illness. Also I don't think anyone will give any sort of fuck about it.

A summer of stag parties and hen dos will probably nudge us towards moving out at some point in the near future, unfortunately.