> It seems like there is a lot of problems baked into zoning

Talk about an understatement. The use of zoning, as far as I can tell, became a frenzy to use this tool to solve every pet problem. Lack of parking, businesses too loud near residences, blocking light, enforcing neighborhood character or feel, keeping "those people" out of your neighborhood, etc.

The end result is that zoning is just paralysis for urban development. You have a ton of funding to get through the zoning board and get exceptions for breaking the rules and to grease some wheels, or you don't build period.

I think a more free and more reasonable approach is like what you find in japan, where (as far as I can tell) it is both very easy to get approval for construction in a wide range of common projects and also very easy to convert a living space to a hotel space. While I was in Japan, i spent a few nights in a "standard" hotel (fancy highrise building with a nice lobby and so on), and a few nights in what was basically just a fairly large house in a desirable area converted into a ryokan-style hotel, with a few rooms downstairs where they served breakfast for guests every morning (it was delicious, by the way).

It wasn't peak tourist season, so the rates were ridiculously affordable for a fashionable and touristy region of a fashionable and touristy developed country.

Is airbnb controversial in Japan or a non-issue? Their zoning system should be a good test case.

I believe Houston, TX has no zoning laws either. You can find high rises right next to houses and you can have an auto repair shop in the middle of a suburban neighborhood.

That's true (houston gets a lot of the same restrictions in other ways, but indeed not from zoning), my point of view was more from the standard Big Expensive Coastal City like the one I live in

https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/2020/01/09/no-zoning-in-Ho...

> The story of Houston’s land-use policies is a lot more complicated than “no zoning.” In reality, Houston is a big mixture of ordinances, policies, tactics by neighborhoods, and independent efforts by nonprofits, all of which play a role in determining how land is used. Whether or not the lack of zoning and the use of these other tools add up to a more equitable city or a city where the affluent are protected is open to debate.

[...]

> 3. A complicated development code that contains everything you’d expect except use zoning — and, in some cases, density and height restrictions as well — and drives applicants crazy just like the development code in many other cities.

Hotels have staff that supervise guests. They often have their own security, and have a lot of regulations on what they can and can't do.

Airbnb units often don't have anyone supervising their visitors.

Hah, that's funny. I had a horrible night at a hotel in Ireland, where the room next door was partying and the attendant was just powerless to stop it (he tried).

So I'm sure you can imagine what happens in places where there isn't even an attendant to try, and the rest of the building is not other hotel guests having a potential lousy night but people's actual homes.

Oh absolutely, and we had an experience in London where the apartment upstairs was used for a party while we were there and the landlord, who owned both apartments didn't care, wouldn't take responsibility.

Yeah, I suspect the more important function of a hotel is to isolate visitors from residents. In that case, your hotel probably (mostly) worked.

That's the exception rather than the rule.

Most decent hotels have staff and security.

Hotels in the US by far do not have security. It depends how large the hotel. Typically, places with large meeting spaces or banquet halls with a few hundred rooms and bars/restaurants will have security.

But your typical mid market hotel in the ~80 room to ~160 room range like Hampton Inn, Residence Inn, or Holiday Inn Express will not have any security, or anyone on property other than 1, maybe 2 people working the front desk. And they certainly aren't going to do anything other than call the police if something happens.

And the police may also choose not to do something if they don't feel like doing anything.

Wasn't decent, and one could argue that we got what we paid for :)

Hotels are specifically sited to keep the nuisance of short term visitors away from residents.

If people are staying for a short term they don’t have much incentive to keep the place nice. You can call the cops and they’ll get a warning the first time but that doesn’t matter when they will fly out of the jurisdiction next morning.

Usually you don't have to worry if the house next door is going to get torn down and a hotel raised in its place.

In Paris hotels have been extremely tightly regulated for a long time. The original system of 1-5 stars originated there, and was a government-mandated scale based on very specific criteria of quality and facilities. Lots of sharp practice by hotel-owners is outlawed. For example, hoteliers are not allowed to 'bundle' meals with overnight stays. This stops them selling meals of worse quality or higher price than cafes and restaurants. Given the regulation, it seems fair for them to expect that the authorities will crack down on unregulated competitors.

You might argue the pros and cons of the regulation, but it's clear that over the last 100 years, Paris is known as a great place to visit, and the availability of decent and decently priced accommodation has been very successful for the city as a whole, not just its landlords.

Hotels are high-density housing. Typically many floors, with many small units.

Hotels don't get built on ground designated for residential, surely?

I lived right next to a hotel. So, maybe not literally on the same ground but they can be built right next to your place.

I would never get an apartment next to a hotel. The idling diesel buses were obnoxious. Along with all the people who would smoke outside and yell and scream. Kinda ridiculous.

I haven’t had to live next to a permanent airbnb apartment though.

That's a fair point but a very different problem.

It's easy for a city to limit the number of hotels being built to limit the number of annoyed residents like you, if they want to.

It's not as easy to limit the number of apartments being used as airbnbs, because at time of sale or even city zoning, they're just regular apartments.

So it's not about whether one is more annoying than the other, it's about controlling the amount of each.

> But the question I always wonder is what's so special about hotels that they get to build dozens or hundreds of apartments but don't have to put them on the market?

Your average hotel room (at least in a large city) is much smaller than anything that would be permitted as a habitable apartment in most jurisdictions. The hotel also insulates residents from tourists, and hotels often have planning constraints intended to further reduce tourist nuisance (for instance, they may not be allowed have externally facing balconies).

And planning authorities can consider local needs; if you give planning for an apartment block you expect it to be used for housing, if you give planning for a hotel (or aparthotel) you expect it to be used for tourism. Airbnbs tend to break that model a bit.

Arguably the pressures of increased cost is distributed exponentially, so the whatever the top of the market can tolerate puts a compounded level of stress/pressure downstream on society.