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Re:Santa Monica council votes 7-0 to crack down on Airbnb by shard972 on Wednesday May 13, 2015 @10:13PM (#9543113)
> Those complaints are entirely predictable: people buy or rent residences in buildings expecting those buildings to be inhabited by long-term residents, then some part of the building gets converted to a hotel. People aren't OK with that.

So just write in a contract "This residence can not be used as a hotel". Done, problem solved. Why on earth do we need government's involved again?

> There are also places where vibrant short-term rental markets may exacerbate tight housing markets.

AirBNB in a small influencer in the housing market, i would be pretty disgusted if my elected officials were pursuing airbnb in an effort to normalize the housing market. To me it would be like the capitan on the titanic telling everyone to start hauling water to save the ship.

> I've had nothing but good Airbnb experiences, in SFBA, NYC, and London.

I have never used it personally but to me it seems everyone who has a complaint isn't using it and is being affected by externalities which they can only fight using the government.

Any other actions disgruntled people would otherwise take would be illegal by nature due to property rights.

Re:Santa Monica council votes 7-0 to crack down on Airbnb by ma2rten on Wednesday May 13, 2015 @10:19PM (#9543126)
So just write in a contract "This residence can not be used as a hotel". Done, problem solved. Why on earth do we need government's involved again?

This is already part of any rental contract. People just choose to ignore it.

My parents rented an AirBnb (in Santa Monica incidentally) and they where instructed to tell the neighbors that they are friends of the owner.

Re:Santa Monica council votes 7-0 to crack down on Airbnb by tokenadult on Wednesday May 13, 2015 @10:21PM (#9543131)
So just write in a contract "This residence can not be used as a hotel".

That's a very standard clause in most leases, and in some agreements that mutually agree on restrictions of use of owner-occupied housing. City zoning regulations also apply to many of these situations. Right now there are many, many, many (but not all) Airbnb rooms that violate multiple legal agreements or applicable laws that apply to the person offering the rooms on Airbnb. It remains to be seen what form of enforcement will work best to make sure those lease agreements or other contracts are honored, and the zoning regulations obeyed.

EDIT: Several comments here mention the legal history of how regulations developed in the first place. As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. wrote, "The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience."

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Oliver_Wendell_Holmes,_Jr.

Re:Santa Monica council votes 7-0 to crack down on Airbnb by eli_gottlieb on Wednesday May 13, 2015 @10:32PM (#9543161)
>So just write in a contract "This residence can not be used as a hotel".

Actually, I've never seen a lease that allows subletting as an AirBnB. It's always against the rental agreement. AirBnB are basically just facilitating people violating their signed contracts, and we mostly look the other way because everyone hates landlords anyway.