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Airbnb purges more than half of its Boston listings
By adamg on Thu, 12/05/2019 - 8:36pm
Wired reports on the company's efforts to comply with Boston's new short-term rental ordinance, with a massive purge of its Boston listings over the past weekend to ditch places that, among other things, aren't registered with the city or are in buildings where the owner doesn't live.
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
Good
.
Hey it’s a free market ,
Hey it’s a free market , mannnnn
So freakin' what?!?
That doesn't mean that having so many Airbnb's here in Boston is a good thing.
Batting .500
Aren't registered with the city? Who cares? I didn't demand that. Wasn't a problem until government said it was one.
Where the owner doesn't live? I don't want government banning those listings outright, but I have no problem with them forcing full disclosure on whether or not the owner lives there. That's a fine bit of consumer protection in a finite market.
I disagree with you here, Will LaTulippe!
Frankly, I'm more than glad that Airbnb has purged more than half of its Boston listings. They don't belong in an urban area, anyhow, plus Airbnb contributed greatly to the housing shortage here in Boston. They should ban Airbnb here in Boston altogether.
Airbnb
I am Airbnb…registered with Boston and Mass Tax Collect. I rent ONE guest room…occasionally…maximum stay is 4 nights. and I have had amazing folks from 12 countries pass thought my welcoming door in the past 6 months. I am pleased that I can offer a place that is near 2 commuter lines and is clean safe $65.00 a night to stay. I HAVE NOT contributed to the housing shortage but have supported Boston’s amiability. Please take me out of your “box”.
Huh?
The best place to get an Air BNB is in an urban area! Hosts are usually very helpful with places to go and things to do and see - and how to get there. They are also vastly more family friendly than hotels.
Once again, you know nothing but can't get over your need to pretend that you know everything.
Trust fund suburbanites who never travel
Don't belong in an urban area.
"They don't belong in an urban area"
Please explain: what is your experience with AirBnB that leads you to this conclusion?
It’s true, my former apartment building was turned into
an Air bnb. Everyone had to move out.
Didn't affect you
Obviously, you don't live in an apartment whose absentee landlord rented out out other units in the building as Air B&Bs. I have friends to whom it happened, and it wasn't good. The transients caused all kinds of problems for the permanent tenants, and the landlord not only wasn't there to solve those problems, but tried to get the tenants to fulfill some of his responsibilities - "Some people are coming to stay in my B&B tonight. Could you let them in?"
My friends are very grateful for the new regulations, and if you had been in their shoes, you would be, too. The landlord disclosing that he didn't live in the building would not solve anything.
Are your friends also triggered
Anytime they have to stay at or even drive by a hotel? Gasp, the shenanigans happening in those places...
Let's hope
. . . that someone lists an AirBnB next to you, so you can have the pleasure of listening to wild partying all night long every weekend, having fights outside your door, and finding trash, vomit, etc., in your hallway — all things that I have heard residents in my neighborhood complaining about because they live in buildings with unsupervised AirBnbs.
Says any Boston neighborhood
Populated with college students, NIMBY!
My Issue with this...
America is suppose to be land of the free but lately all I keep seeing is the government but city and state controlling every aspect of our lives. First this week was the ban on flavored cigarettes and now Air B&B. How can the city tell me what I can do with my property that I bought and pay taxes for every year. If you rent next to a property that is an Air B&B and they are having parties or what not, instead of complaining go buy your own property elsewhere. Think about it, you purchase a property, pay taxes on it but the city tells you what you can and can’t do. We are slowly becoming oppressed by the government.
hahaha
good one. very accurate Freshman-Bro-Reads-Ayn-Rand-For-The-First-Time-And-"Figures-It-All-Out"
nice touch.
<eyeroll>
And what if you buy elsewhere and then the guy next to you decides to make his place an Air B&B? Are you supposed to sell and move again?
No, the government is being forced to play grownup for a bunch of goddamned children who forgot how to share and be polite.
You know what also happens when you rent or buy?
You sign rental agreements.
You agree to follow the condo bylaws.
Most of these PRIVATE contracts say that you cannot sublease, rent out, or have a short term rental set up without permission from either your landlord, the condo association, or both.
Even when it is your own house you rent out, the place has to conform to the safety and health laws that govern your renting it out, and the people who rent it can't throw a for-profit rager legally, either.
Consider these things when you grow up and actually have to be responsible for your behavior.
Hotels have hotel staff to
Hotels have hotel staff to attend to their guests!
It would solve something
I wouldn't stay in an AirBnb where the owner and/or occupant was off-site. That's how you get bait and switched. Spare room in someone's home or GTFO.
As for the housing crisis, if AirBnb beats hotels enough on price, it would stand to reason that hotels would go out of business, no? Then the hotels can become places for permanent residents to live.
Hotels
don’t allow the shenanigans that go on in Airbnb’s. No wild parties, prostitution, porn production, meth labs etc.
At least the Copley Marriott is safe now..
Since craigslist personals were deleted...
Limying rentals to buildings
Limying rentals to buildings where the owner lives is not for the convenience of the guest or the renter, it's for the benefit of all the other people who paid 1 mil for their condo and don't want to live in a youth hostel.
If you paid $1,000,000
For a residence, you don't have my sympathy, now, or ever.
You didn't demand it, but...
You didn't demand it, but some of the rest of us did.
"Government" is us. It does what we ask it to do. That's "we" plural, not "you, Will, singular."
yup.
via GIPHY
"Government is us"
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Which corporation are you, sir?
Which corporation?
Not Airbnb apparently...
Active listings?
This is good news!
I do wonder how many of those listings were active. We got a notification that our listing was removed, but it was a profile we created for our home when we spent the summer in my hometown in 2015 and it hasn’t been visible since.
I wish it was all active units. I did some canvassing for the City Council election and I was amazed at how many doors had combination locks.
Combination locks
They are great for short term lets, but we installed one for convenience. Babysitters, visiting family, temporary codes for contractors, etc.
I am for regulation of AirBnB. However, combination or smart locks are not always indicative of a short term let.
Magoo sez
Magoo is going to take a cue from the TMNT and start and Airbnb in the sewers. Cowabunga dudes. Magoo.
Pizza around here isn't good
Pizza around here isn't good enough for that, M.
i'll be more interested to see
the coming proliferation of straw "owner-residents" and those who miraculously manage to reside in 25 different homes at once.
Computers are good at catching that sort of thing.
Even back in the punched-cards-and-magtape 1970s, I remember the NYC government cross-tabulating data to identify people who claimed NYC residency for rent control purposes and out-of-town residency for income tax purposes.
The city already has a
The city already has a mechanism that sorts that out through the residential tax exemption, it's fairly effective and accurate as it cross references tax returns.
A UMass study found that
A UMass study found that every 12 Airbnb listings per census tract correlated to rents rising by 0.4 percent.
An NBER study concluded that, in a median owner-occupancy rate zipcode territory, "a 1% increase in Airbnb listings leads to a 0.018% increase in rents and a 0.026% increase in house prices," and "Airbnb listings.... decrease the supply of long-term rental units."
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3006832 (this may be paywalled-- if anyone is interested in it & cannot get to the study, I'll post a PDF elsewhere)
Interesting
But I'll wait for the study that shows what happens to house prices when AirBnb drives hotels out of business, leaving giant vacant buildings where people can go live.
The space exists, the only thing that's changing is that people aren't paying exorbitant prices to a bloated corporation anymore for a place to (expletive), sleep, and shower while on vacation.
I've used AirBnb four times in San Diego with no grievances from myself or from the hosting party. And I haven't bothered any neighbors. I spend the day out and about, then I go to the place and sleep. It's not difficult.
its not about your individual experience
Its about structural impacts.
Paragraph 1: Prediction of a
Paragraph 1: Prediction of a
Breaking this down...
Breaking this down...
Breaking this down...
Breaking this down...
Multiple glitches later...
Please delete all that mess...
Ok, I'm waiting for Boston
Ok, I'm waiting for Boston rents to drop.