When you read articles describing airbnb horror stories you need to ask yourself if this was a host-resident “Private Room” listing or a host-absent “Entire Place ” listing. Almost always it will be an “Entire Place” listing. This makes sense because there is no resident host to supervise the property or the guests or for […]
Continue reading →Four major areas need to be addressed when developing a comprehensive short-term rental policy. There are many different ways to address each area with “prohibition” as one possibility. As shown above, I believe the most important distinguishing factor in terms of neighbors and housing stock is whether a host is resident during the guest’s stay […]
Continue reading →Every airbnb listing is assigned a type: shared room (couch surfing), host-resident “private room” (mini-B&B), and host-absent “entire place” (vacation rental). Host-resident “private room” rentals are generally benign or beneficial. Host-absent “entire place” rentals are where the problems are usually found. The chart below summarizes the differences. (Click on image to enlarge) An SF Chronicle […]
Continue reading →At public hearings airbnb often arranges for a large number of airbnb hosts to testify. Generally they will be “private room” hosts who live in the property during the guest’s stay. They will tell heart warming stories about their wonderful guests and how airbnb helped them stay in their homes. These stories are generally accurate […]
Continue reading →When regulating airbnb and similar listing service, the major stakeholders seem to be: Airbnb and Airbnb hosts and those who want to be hosts (who generally want no or little regulation) Concerned Neighbors and neighborhood associations(who generally want a prohibition or a lot of regulation) The City who wants to collect Hotel Tax and have a […]
Continue reading →In a few short years the airbnb website ( www.airbnb.com ) has gone from promoting “couch surfing”, to host-resident “private room” rentals (mini-B&Bs), to host-absent vacation rentals. In 2008, airbnb operated only in the United States By 2014 it operates in 33,000 cities and 192 countries Has grown to over 300,000 listings Has booked 4 million […]
Continue reading →From a policy perspective, regulating short-term rentals (such as airbnb) seems to have 3 primary components: Appropriately regulating limited commercial use of residential properties. Maintaining the stock of month-to-month rental housing; and Protecting guests, neighbors and residential neighborhoods. These topics lack the glamor of the “sharing economy” or “peer-to-peer web-based services” but do seem to be the underlying […]
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