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A comment on Reasons not to use Uber. Parent comment

Re:Reasons not to use Uber by elcct on Saturday November 12, 2016 @02:01PM (#12939527)
> who've bought or rented their homes with the expectation of a residential area, not living next to a hotel.

Well, if you are xenophobic then maybe you should buy a farm somewhere nowhere when you won't be seeing strangers.

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Re:Reasons not to use Uber by throwaway729 on Saturday November 12, 2016 @02:54PM (#12939831)
I don't think there's necessarily a xenophobic component to not wanting to live next to a hotel. In fact, that explanation seems pretty unlikely -- I don't typically see concentrations of minorities when I'm at hotels in the US... most customers are your average middle class professional on business, or vacationing middle class family.

I wouldn't want to live next to any hotel, including a 5 start resort catering to mostly domestic customers.

Hotels bring a lot of problems -- bursts of foot/auto traffic at weird times of the night, public drinking/drunkenness and loud groups of pedestrians on week nights, etc.

Nothing wrong with any of that -- vacations should be fun! -- but when it's happening every other Tuesday night in the next-door apartment, it can get super annoying.

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Re:Reasons not to use Uber by elcct on Saturday November 12, 2016 @03:23PM (#12939969)
As xenophobia I meant fear of strangers in general. What you listed really sounds like you should have a farm. Those things in residential areas are unavoidable.
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Re:Reasons not to use Uber by Anderkent on Saturday November 12, 2016 @03:54PM (#12940136)
Those thing occur sometimes, but rarely, in a purely residential area. someone has a louder party every couple of months, people travel now and then... Compare to basically every week with a flat that's being airbnb'd constantly.

They're entirely avoidable. I live in central london, and I've never had any issues with neighbours until I moved to a flat where the landlord upstairs decided to just full-time airbnb the place, rather than rent to someone permanent.

Tourists are way more inconsiderate of neighbours. It makes sense - they're never going to meet us, they're just here to have fun. But pretending it has no impact on the quality of the area is silly.

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Re:Reasons not to use Uber by elcct on Saturday November 12, 2016 @07:28PM (#12941072)
There are already laws in place if neighbour is noisy. Also if you move to a flat you have to factor in that such situation might happen. That is just a nature of flats. If not Airbnb, flat above could be bought / rented by party students or family with 10 kids. You never know and that's why flats are considerably cheaper than houses where you can have more certainty.

> Tourists are way more inconsiderate of neighbours.

You cannot generalise. If tourists are making noises then there are anti social reporting services that you can use.

Airbnb is not only for tourists, but it is used by people who just moved in and are looking for a place to rent and don't want to spend fortune on hotels or for example it is a great alternative for contractors - having for example 1 month assignment, why spend money on hotel?

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Re:Reasons not to use Uber by throwaway729 on Saturday November 12, 2016 @03:25PM (#12939979)
> Those things in residential areas are unavoidable.

This is not my experience. Even in urban areas I've lived places that are not like this.

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Re:Reasons not to use Uber by Anderkent on Saturday November 12, 2016 @02:49PM (#12939811)
Or maybe I dislike being woken up at 5am every week by people banging around with their huge bags on the staircase.

I'm sure that's some sort of xenophobia.

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Re:Reasons not to use Uber by xapata on Saturday November 12, 2016 @04:19PM (#12940284)
That's a different problem. Don't ban all guests just because you don't like loud guests at 5am.
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Re:Reasons not to use Uber by Anderkent on Saturday November 12, 2016 @04:27PM (#12940309)
No, it is exactly the same problem. It's impossible to police whether a particular short-term guest is a loud one or a quiet one. So we separate the areas where tourists stay, where hotels are, from the residential ones where people live permanently.

It's a great solution, until people start defecting and creating things like airbnb.

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Re:Reasons not to use Uber by xapata on Saturday November 12, 2016 @04:47PM (#12940395)
"Impossible" is a bold claim. There are all sorts of things that condo associations regulate.

To put it another way: some people drive while intoxicated, but drinking alcohol is still legal.

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Re:Reasons not to use Uber by Anderkent on Saturday November 12, 2016 @05:07PM (#12940477)
Alright, maybe there is some way of doing it on a lower level. But in most cities I've lived 'condo associations' aren't a thing, and this is simply resolved with zoning laws.

Once a replacement solution is implemented, I'm happy to start arguing for airbnb to be legal. Though it seems like it would likely eliminate the price advantage that airbnbs currently enjoy.

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Re:Reasons not to use Uber by xapata on Saturday November 12, 2016 @07:33PM (#12941091)
How would you deal with a neighboring homeowner that was noisy every weekend at 5am?

(not a rhetorical question)

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Re:Reasons not to use Uber by Broken_Hippo on Sunday November 13, 2016 @05:11AM (#12942657)
Some would call the cops, but this still isn't the same as having different people in there from weekend to weekend.

In the AirBNB situation, the police could be giving a citation to a different person from weekend to weekend. If it were a traditional rental, the landlord could force the offenders out: But I'm not sure if there is much legal recourse for a series of short-term rentals being loud.

And some of the noise isn't such that you can get legal help. Loud vehicles and people banging luggage up and down stairs is one of those disturbing things that is over by the time you call the cops. What then?

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Re:Reasons not to use Uber by xapata on Sunday November 13, 2016 @07:01AM (#12942942)
The landlord/owner is responsible regardless of whether there's a single long-term tenant, many short-term tenants, or the owner resides in the home.

I'm thinking of all the annoying neighbor situations I've had over the years. Luggage banging in the hallway at odd hours is mild compared to a modified motorcycle coming home at 2am.

A tenant has a right to "quiet enjoyment" so if everyone is part of the same apartment complex, you can force the landlord to take care of things. However, if you're in a row of single family homes... Didn't they make a couple movies recently about fighting with bad neighbors? Also, I don't think the cops are going to help if the neighbor slams their door when they leave home every morning at 5am or if their yappy dog is lonely most of the day.

I think we should try to create some standards for being a good neighbor. If an AirBnB host can ensure their guests meet that standard, then there's no problem.

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