Airbnb Is a Risky Neighbor

Having lived in a BK building where at least 25% (4 out of 16) of the tenants rented out their apt. on AirBnB with regular frequency, I can&#x27;t wait for this to be addressed once and for all...<p>Strangers with keys to the front door, easily copied because our landlord didn&#x27;t invest in secure locks. Strangers coming home at 3am on a weekday (Mo-We), inebriated, slamming the doors waking us up and the kid as well, quite often with more raucous strangers in tow for a night cap. Strangers picked up in a bar of our &#x27;gentrifying&#x27; hood, who left at 5am after knocking back more beers and&#x2F;or some boots.<p>I paid rent, for the joy of living in a virtual dorm, they collected monies while affecting my quality of life and safety. The lease specifically forbade short-term subletting. We lived in that place for 13 years, 10 without problems, but the last 3 at times unbearable because of these &quot;good friends from Europe&quot;.<p>When we moved, our friendly neighbors across the hall, avowed AirBnB hosts (they came clean), suggested that we renew our lease one more year (rent stabilized) and put our apt. on AirBnB &quot;as a source of income&quot;. They would happily &quot;manage&quot; our AirBnB listing (key transfer, cleaning) for a piece of the pie. We declined, we liked our other neighbors too much...<p>With reports from Berlin, San Francisco and other cities showcasing how AirBnB has affected availability of apt&#x27;s and is one of the main drivers of rising rents ( eg see <a href="http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/item/airbnb-san-francisco-30110.php" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sfchronicle.com&#x2F;business&#x2F;item&#x2F;airbnb-san-francisc...</a> and <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2013/1230/Berlin-squeezes-Airbnb-on-short-term-apartment-rentals" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.csmonitor.com&#x2F;World&#x2F;Europe&#x2F;2013&#x2F;1230&#x2F;Berlin-squee...</a> ) it&#x27;s about time something is done about this.<p>Let&#x27;s stop calling them social sharing companies, and just rename them &quot;loopholes&quot;, who make money by assisting others in breaking the law, violating the terms of their lease, and enabling tax evasion whilst denying any type of responsibility for &quot;sharing&quot; my quality of life to pieces...<p>Glad regulation is in the pipeline. Private home owners who reside in their own houses, share away, but keep AirBnB out of apt. buildings.<p>Edit: words&#x2F;grammar

Airbnb will naturally drive up rents in places where it’s being used. If a tenant has the capacity to pay (e.g.) $2000 for an apartment, but now can get an additional (e.g.) $300 a month, the tenant’s capacity to pay is now $2300.<p>A savvy landlord or condo association would want to capture this. Because it’s new, it’s seen as a disturbance. A little bit of thinking would reveal that there is now $XXX new money coming in the door (due to better utilization of the property).<p>It’s in the owners’ ultimate interest to figure out how to either a) accommodate this explicitly and safely, and capture some of the new revenue or b) prohibit it because the tenants prefer it, but know that the price of a “non-shared” building will carry a premium.<p>One way a condo association might adopt the idea is to point out that Airbnb’ers $$ might be used for building upgrades or to reduce condo fees.

So what does Airbnb do when a property owner demands Airbnb delist his property from its site? Clearly an owner has more right than his tenant to determine where his property is rented, especially if their lease agreement prohibits short term rentals.<p>If Airbnb received a legal notice from a property owner demanding it delist his property, it seems like they would have to comply. Otherwise they might face a pretty simple case of negligence for listing an owner&#x27;s property for rent without his approval. The only evidence the owner needs to supply is a signed copy of the lease and public records of ownership.<p>So why aren&#x27;t landlords doing this? I think the issue is either they don&#x27;t care, or there&#x27;s no easy way to do it. Perhaps somebody should set up a service that facilitates this process by reducing it to uploading a copy of the lease agreement and ownership records, then sending a request to Airbnb. If enough property owners use a service like that, it could gain some significant attention.

Yeah, it&#x27;s happen again and again.<p>I love AirBnB as a customer, used it a few times and have a great experience with it... but I would be worried if somebody rent apartment next to me without they presence at all...<p>... on the other hand how would you enforce non-subletting policies? Likely only some high-end biometrics access could do that, but that won&#x27;t happen any time soon in vast majority of the places.

So everyone suddenly hates AirBnB, huh?

If you want to avoid the moral hazard of tenants subletting their apartment, and the owners being screwed, you need a mechanism for the contract (which disallows subletting) to be enforced.<p>So how do you effectively enforce that? Should the owner have cameras in the hallway? Should the tenants be subject to random checks? some balance has to be found to keep both sides happy.<p>The other question is why are tenants going through the trouble and risks of subletting. And this guy knows why:<p><a href="http://moodyeyeview.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/toodamnhigh.png" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;moodyeyeview.files.wordpress.com&#x2F;2011&#x2F;08&#x2F;toodamnhigh....</a><p>You might notice Airbnb has virtually no presence (relatively) in countries where the rent is lower, especially in relation to people&#x27;s income.

I think it takes a really fucked up worldview to say &quot;I don&#x27;t like noisy visitors, so we should just ban AirBnB outright.&quot;<p>Really? Is that your first response whenever you don&#x27;t like something? Just make it illegal!<p>How about you ask for enforcement&#x2F;introduction of non-subleasing policies for your building? There is absolutely <i>no</i> good reason to screw over everyone else in the process.