I Lost My Life to Airbnb

Re:I Lost My Life to Airbnb by gpspake on Friday January 03, 2020 @05:43PM (#21951109)

Personally, I think this is cool and props to the author for pulling it off. However, the thing that strikes the more scrutinous side of me about all this - the elephant in the room, if you will - is that what the author is doing almost certainly conflicts with her rental agreement and were she to be brought to court over it, it would probably be a clear case in the favor of the lessor and she might even have to pay back what she had earned. I feel like this is sort of the dream airbnb sells and here's a model case of someone achieving that dream but at the end of the day it's only possible because she's breaking a legal agreement; this probably wouldn't work if she were responsible for the higher cost of the mortgage and maintenance that comes with owning the property. In this case, the fan falls from the ceiling and she likely just calls her landlord to fix it. So the landlord assumes the cost to fix it and she continues to profit by subletting the apartment for significantly more than she's paying. Airbnb is basically facilitating a situation where the tenant gets to double dip. They profit off of an asset they don't own and don't assume much liability for and the owner is ultimately the loser. I wonder how this will all play out for airbnb on a larger scale over time.

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Re:I Lost My Life to Airbnb by smt88 on Friday January 03, 2020 @06:42PM (#21951536)

You're right, and on top of that, her behavior artificially inflates rental prices (by shifting some of her rental costs to tourists).

In practice, illegal Airbnb's seem somewhat rare, especially compared to the millions of Ikea-furnished semi-professional rat holes that have taken over the platform.

There are tools that landlords can pay for that detect illegal sublets based on location and supposedly photos too.

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Re:I Lost My Life to Airbnb by skybrian on Friday January 03, 2020 @09:06PM (#21952277)

Prices going up would be neither natural nor artificial. Some people would gain (the people renting and tourists) and others would lose (long term renters).

I think it's enough to say that it shouldn't happen without the landlord's consent.

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Re:I Lost My Life to Airbnb by smt88 on Friday January 03, 2020 @10:33PM (#21952696)

> Prices going up would be neither natural nor artificial.

By artificial, I meant that the rental market would be distorted by Airbnb hosts.

Good example: a friend of mine had parents who loaned him money to qualify for a lease. He couldn't afford the lease, so he used Airbnb to make up the difference.

This meant that non-Airbnb hosts were now competing with Airbnb hosts for the same leases, which is what I was labeling "unnatural".

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Re:I Lost My Life to Airbnb by tlb on Friday January 03, 2020 @11:49PM (#21952930)

In fact, anything anyone does to earn extra income to afford a better home distorts housing prices. It'd have the same effect if they made the same money running a software consulting business in their extra bedroom.

Housing prices in desirable downtowns are mostly distortion these days. It's been a long time since they corresponded to the cost of construction.

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Re:I Lost My Life to Airbnb by smt88 on Saturday January 04, 2020 @01:09AM (#21953212)

This isn't "starting a software business" -- it's violating a lease.

Not everyone can or will take that risk.

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Re:I Lost My Life to Airbnb by tlb on Saturday January 04, 2020 @01:30AM (#21953281)

In fact, many residential leases prohibit running a business out of the premises [0]. But these clauses are rarely enforced unless you're causing complaints.

[0] See clause 7 at https://cozy.co/blog/8-important-lease-clauses-for-landlords... for typical terms

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Re:I Lost My Life to Airbnb by smt88 on Saturday January 04, 2020 @03:09AM (#21953610)

I lived in a condo building that fined an owner $60k for 2 years of illegal Airbnb leasing (for a $300k condo).

I also had a friend who was evicted for leasing a rental.

Running a business out of the premises is rarely enforced, but it also rarely creates risk or loss for the landlord the way Airbnb does.

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Re:I Lost My Life to Airbnb by skybrian on Saturday January 04, 2020 @12:07AM (#21952998)

AirBnB is a new source of income for some, but its effect on market prices is the same as any other way of getting a higher income, like getting a higher salary. So I don't see this as market distortion either. It's just a more competitive market.

But it's still bad for other renters competing for spots, and there are all the other reasons neighbors don't like AirBnB.

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Re:I Lost My Life to Airbnb by Gibbon1 on Saturday January 04, 2020 @12:17AM (#21953031)

> and there are all the other reasons neighbors don't like AirBnB.

Yeah like this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orinda_shooting

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Re:I Lost My Life to Airbnb by heavenlyblue on Friday January 03, 2020 @08:58PM (#21952232)

Illegal Airbnb is everywhere, except it’s not really being persecuted as much

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Re:I Lost My Life to Airbnb by matt-attack on Friday January 03, 2020 @10:24PM (#21952656)

It’s more likely that it only works because the author is reaping the benefits of rent control. The landlord is forced to rent to her at sub-market rates, meanwhile she sublets at market rates capitalizing on the difference.

Truly a corruption of the law.

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Re:I Lost My Life to Airbnb by dmode on Saturday January 04, 2020 @01:05AM (#21953193)

The way this will play out in the longer run is that the leasing company will want their share of the double dip and write and agreement with Airbnb directly

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