Turns out claims Airbnb was taking houses out of the rental market were right

Re:Turns out claims Airbnb was taking houses out of the rent... by gamblor956 on Sunday March 22, 2020 @03:53AM (#22653431)

Hotels are designed for short-term stays, and are regulated and taxed on that basis. (This includes such things as zoning, building code compliance, etc.)

Units converted to AirBnBs were not designed for short-term stays or taxed on that basis, and generally AirBnB only exists because it leveraged regulatory arbitrage quickly enough to grow to the point it could lobby for changes to the law. But after multiple studies in multiple cities confirmed that only a handful of investors benefited from loose unregulated short-term rentals, the pendulum began swinging back towards regulating them like the hotels they are.

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Re:Turns out claims Airbnb was taking houses out of the rent... by DoreenMichele on Sunday March 22, 2020 @03:56AM (#22653443)

It can also void your homeowners insurance to rent your home out on Airbnb.

There have been articles about this. It sticks in my mind because I used to be in insurance.

Residential buildings were not intended to be used this way and all the policy and infrastructure points to "No, really, you weren't supposed to use this as a commercial vehicle. That's not what all of society agreed to for this piece of real property."

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Re:Turns out claims Airbnb was taking houses out of the rent... by foldr on Sunday March 22, 2020 @05:21AM (#22653746)

I've always suspected that being an Airbnb host appears to be much more profitable than it really is because hosts are not properly insured.

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Re:Turns out claims Airbnb was taking houses out of the rent... by stevekemp on Sunday March 22, 2020 @09:13AM (#22654710)

I wonder if it would even make a difference? I used to be a landlord in Scotland, and now am in Finland.

For landlord insurance I'd pay about £300/year in Scotland, and €60/year in Finland. I'd be surprised if there were short-term policies, as distinct from long-term-tenant policies, that we significantly more expensive than that.

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Re:Turns out claims Airbnb was taking houses out of the rent... by foldr on Monday March 23, 2020 @05:59AM (#22662466)

The risk from taking on multiple short-term tenants with no real background checks is surely much greater. Especially given that the tenants have no real incentive to behave well or keep the property in good condition.

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