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this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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It was only just recently that the flood of “Airbnbust” articles seemed to abate a little. I can never tell if Airbnb is going great, or it’s terrible.
For my own part, I’m happy for this update. Despite the complaints, Airbnb is usually a great option for families with little kids, where the alternative is usually “book multiple hotel rooms, and split the parents between them.” Price transparency is good, and I won’t book a place that has a task list for me.
It's gotten to the point where I wonder if the hotel industry is astroturfing posts about Airbnb's.
For families they're a great option instead of being in a single room and being able to prep meals and save on eating out.
I don't like what they've done to the housing market however and should be taxed heavily.
Definitely a good fit for families, being able to stay in a house has allowed us to do things we couldn’t have otherwise. We just got back from a trip that would have taken at least 3 hotel rooms (me, the wife, 3 kids, and my parents), and we paid less than the price of 2 rooms for a gorgeous 4BR beach house with 5 beds. We priced it out and it would have cost the same for 2 hotel rooms, which would have meant no grandparents, and my wife and I sleeping in separate rooms, and at least one kid on a couch.
So, yeah, new use cases enabled that weren’t possible before. That’s cool!
As for taxes, Airbnbs are taxed same as hotels here (15%), and the property owner also pays $10k/yr in property tax on top of that (per public records), so I’m not sure what else would make sense there. In some markets (esp cities) I get the concern about rent impacts, but this isn’t the kind of place that is ever going to be a long term rental. It seems like a parallel market to me, but I’m open to learning otherwise.
See, I think this is the big issue - totally different travel instances. AirBnB was sold (back in the day) as cheaper than a Hotel room, and I think a lot of these posts are people saying, well, I wanted a cheaper hotel room, but the market doesn't actually support making cheaper hotel rooms when done professionally as a business because hotel rooms are very competitive so there's likely to be one at whatever price point you want that's profitable.
So anyone who was in the "market" for a single hotel room now feels like AirBnB is a ripoff, and I tend to agree.
For larger accommodations when travelling - they've always existed, Suites / Long Stay hotels / Timeshare Resorts / and traditional house rentals. But I was ignorant of these "being an option" because I always assumed they're be prohibitively expensive. AirBnB and I guess other market forces have really made that not the case anymore, and there's likely to be something in most places, especially if it's a tourist area. And I think a lot of people are like me - "Oh, that rent a house, those people are rich". "Oh a Suite? Mr Moneybags over here". When in reality it's often not that much money when you compare - especially for larger family groups.
No, it's just a house, most likely in a residential district, that could have been someone's home if it wasn't bought by a corporation and turned into a short-term rental property. There-by reducing available home inventory and contributing to the ongoing housing crisis.
Not being argumentative, but according to public records this place is privately owned by a person (or family) who bought it in 1997 (not a corp or LLC). It was listed for rent 2 years ago at $3900 before being taken down a month later.
That’s why I see it as a parallel market. I have a hard time seeing how folks being hurt by crazy rent prices are affected by this home being on Airbnb, any more than (say) a shortage of Ferraris would affect the price of minivans.
That's entirely fair. I was making broad assumptions about ownership.
But it's all intertwined. That home's $3900/mo rent price 2 years ago is still indicative of the problem. Pre-covid that home would have been more affordable. The families that could have afforded it are pushed either to smaller homes or into rentals. Due to inflation across the board everyone's getting pushed down into smaller or otherwise less expensive housing, of which there is limited supply.