Short-term rentals disrupting SF housing market

Much of the criticism of Airbnb in this article seems to stem from renters "subletting" their apartments to vacationers. Why does Airbnb allow renters to list their apartments on Airbnb at all? In virtually no case does a renter have a lease that permits Airbnb-style listings; the boilerplate lease that virtually everyone works from requires landlord approval for each subletter.<p>It seems unconscionable to rent an apartment from a landlord and then use the space to run a hotel. Anybody who's ever rented more than one apartment knows that landlords are picky about tenants, often requiring credit checks as well as references from previous landlords. Renters sign a binding agreement with their landlord stipulating that they're using the space as their private residence. Breaking that agreement for profit is unethical.

Two of my coworkers are in SF right now for WWDC, having flown there from Europe, and their AirBnB host was just handed an eviction notice for subletting - they have to leave immediately. So this article feels extremely ... timely.<p>And I'll be in SF in 2 weeks for Google IO, also staying with an AirBnB host. Not the kind of article I want to read before flying out there :-)

For an industry so focused on <i>disrupting</i> ...everything. Things start to get real hard, boring and <i>normal</i> when met with success and exposure to the <i>public</i>. I admire the optimism that youth brings, allowing someone to look at a problem with a fresh perspective but all too often, the rules, laws and regulations in place that make <i>the old way of doing</i> business so boring and hard are actually in place for a very good reason.<p>Support line dealing with complaints from neighbors? How messy and resource intensive.<p>Meeting with local community leaders and the public to discuss the issues surrounding their service? That doesn't scale very well and is again ... messy, boring and hard.

<i>all too often, the rules, laws and regulations in place that make the old way of doing business so boring and hard are actually in place for a very good reason.</i><p>{{citation needed}}<p>I can just as easily say that <i>"the rules, laws and regulations in place that make the old way of doing business so boring and hard are actually in place because of corruption, greed, nepotism, and/or incompetence and are universally immoral, unjust and should be ignored"</i>.<p>And on a semi-related note... did anybody else notice how the phrase <i>"scarce rental housing"</i> kept cropping up in that article? Hmmm... so if there is actually demand for more long-term rental housing, and that demand is not being met, I'd bet money that the primary reason is <i>drumroll please</i> government interference. And I'd be strongly tempted to suspect that said interference has it's root in more corrupted relationships involving the local government and powerful special interests.

<i>"We used Airbnb happily in Europe last summer," said Thieme. "I want to extend them the benefit of the doubt that they are still evolving their business model and have had explosive growth, but they need to evolve appropriate mechanisms of monitoring and control. They should deal with zoning laws and tax laws more aggressively and realistically, or they will antagonize people."</i><p>tl;dr: "We like Airbnb when others are potentially inconvenienced to our benefit, but not the other way around."

I also just had an issue with AirBnb. I live in a NYC cooperative apartment. We do NOT allow short-term rentals (It's actually a NYS law, minimum of 30 days). The person renting out their apartment owns it. I had spoken to AirBnb about this issue, asking them to remove the listing. They feel that this is an issue between our building and the owner of the individual apartment. However I asked AirBnb why they allow apartment rentals in a state where the law does not allow it. AirBnb stated that the lessor signs an agreement and therefore the onus is on them. However, I feel the law is implicit and AirBnb is aware of this law, then entering a contract with prior knowledge of the contract already being invalid makes AirBnb culpable. You dont enter contracts knowing the contract is already void. It's amazing that AirBnb's entire business model pretty much hinges on this contract cop-out. It has yet to be seen if my building decides to include AirBnb as a defendant in a lawsuit against this owner as we work to evict them. The main reason why toursts need to stay in hotels is also as follows: 1) no background check - allows opportunity of crime. Example: pedophile renting a house or apartment near children. Or someone wanting to rob a specific apartment or group of apartments. How do you gain access to the building? $120 bucks, one night. 2) Fire Code: hotels have sprinklers and proper signage for fire in places where people are not as familiar with the surroundings. This puts the guests at risk. 3) Fire hazard: Guests are unfamiliar with the stove, or jet lagged or smoke a cigarette etc. Risk of fire is greater. 4) Noise: guests decide to have a party or blast music. Or they are just up late b/c they are on vacation. 5) Vermin: guests arent going to be as clean. B/c, hey that's what the cleaning deposit is for. This can attract vermin. Then there's the chance the guests bring bed bugs with them.<p>And yes, I agree it does take away units that would otherwise have been used for long-term renting, robbing the rental market of stock. NYC has about a 1% vacancy rate as it is.<p>AirBnb is going to see a huge litigation storm coming its way if it doesnt take more of a proactive approach where local law does not allow such rentals.

<i>"The big surprise for us was when we tried to contact Airbnb" to complain, said Thieme, a writer and editor...</i><p>Not mentioned is if they tried to <i>talk to their neighbour</i>.

Weird that AirBnB wasn't asked to comment on this piece; or if they were, that they didn't provide anything significant.

I can say as someone who moved to New York two weeks ago and hoped that AirBnB would allow me to find a good temp place that i feel pretty critical towards the experience.<p>The prices are insane. I paid 3300USD for a shitty studio in China Town for a month.<p>I am ok with paying a lot of money for a place and I know NY well enough to know it's expensive.<p>But people who get only profit from subletting and pumping up the prices by a factor 2x-3x should not be allowed onto the platform.<p>Of course Airbnb don't really care because they get a percentage of the transaction.<p>So great idea but pretty shitty service at least in NY.

This kind of lettings are a PITA for the neighbours, with or without AirBnB. I used to live in a city with high level of tourism and the apartment next door was rented in a short term fashion. Sometimes the people was nice, others they were noisy, there's nothing AirBnB or the owner can really do apart from removing the people form the property if they are breaking the law or community rules.<p>Taxes and laws are a totally different beast here.

Weird no one mentions insurance. That's the biggest issue of all I would think. Landlords have insurance for legitimate tenants.