
Rent Your Place on Airbnb? The Landlord Wants a Cut - prostoalex
http://www.wsj.com/articles/big-landlords-airbnb-discuss-partnerships-1450200473?mod=e2fb
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tptacek
This is even more ominous than renters violating their leases to let places
out on Airbnb, because it means the landlord is incentivized to screw over the
rest of the tenants in the building by allowing Airbnb hotels in it; not only
that, but they're disincentivized to respond to complaints about it!

~~~
brokentone
Not really. The main landlord could operate one or multiple units on Airbnb
now. The reasons they don't likely have to do with their risk at being brought
up for violations of hotelling laws where applicable, and their increased need
for maintenance and maid service would eat into their easy monthly income from
a standard tenant.

~~~
tptacek
It's not that simple. When a renter lets out their place on Airbnb, they do
the work of marketing the place on Airbnb and of dealing with subtenants.
Landlords could be doing that same work, but most aren't. Very few of them,
however, are likely to refuse "free money".

~~~
exelius
But what is the marginal cost of doing that work? Could the landlord hire
someone to do it for multiple apartments? How much would the value of that
service be vs. what people are willing to pay on Airbnb?

Let's be honest; marketing the place on Airbnb and dealing with renters aren't
a huge value-add. The majority of the value is generated by the ownership of
the building, and the building owners want to capture as much of that as they
can.

Airbnb is a slippery slope: it mixes the hotel markets (which tend to be much
higher priced) with the rental markets. This brings the prices of rental
markets up, and many renters may feel the only way they can afford their
apartment is if they rent it out. It's also how you get $1 million studio
apartments in Manhattan - the monthly payment on a $1 million loan isn't bad
when you consider you can rent it out at $350/night for half the year (hotels
in the same area are ~$500/night) and still turn a profit.

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nemo44x
As someone who rents from Equity Residential in NYC I will move to another
apartment if they open my building up to this.

It is illegal in NYC to rent an apartment for less than 30 days and is
enforced by many landlords. If Airbnb is trying to convince landlords to look
the other way, I find that disgusting.

I don't want my building to be a hotel. I don't want random people in my
building. The idea that landlords can rationalize steeply raising rents with
the expectation that tenants will find the money by letting someone crash on
their couch for a few days every month to make it up is dehumanizing.

Will this be exploited by the 20% of affordable housing units in these
buildings paying well below market rates?

~~~
bpodgursky
> I don't want my building to be a hotel. I don't want random people in my
> building.

Here's the thing... it's not your building.

I totally understand it being wrong to AirBnB a rental without the landlord's
approval. But if the landlord is ok with it... they own the building, that's
their call. If you don't like it, find a different apartment.

~~~
mikeash
"My building" is a common English colloquialism to mean "the building in which
I reside." It does not actually imply ownership.

If you don't like it, find a different language. :P

~~~
digler999
In a lease agreement, it is a common convention to pay a rental rate for _one
dwelling_ or "unit" in the building. Not the "entire building " containing
said dwelling. If you dont like what other people do with _their_ dwellings,
pay their rent for them in exchange for agreements governing what they do
therein.

~~~
OJFord
Nonsense, if I owned the whole building I would say "my [more familiar term
than 'building']".

Perhaps an example will put you at ease:

"Oh could you help me take these to my flat? I know they're heavy, but don't
worry, my building has a lift!"

Substitute apartment and elevator if so inclined.

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stevesearer
My landlords live in a small one bedroom home behind the house my family is in
and I was thinking about doing this with them.

Essentially, I'd still pay my rent like normal and then have them manage the
Airbnb while we're out of town and they'd get a cut of the proceeds. I'd need
to check the lease to see if I'm allowed to do it anyway, I assume not, but it
seems like a reasonable way for all three parties to win:

They collect more rent, I cover some travel expenses, ad someone gets to stay
in a cute place close to downtown Santa Barbara.

~~~
codeonfire
You're making a lot of assumptions here. As a landlord I would just evict you
if you tried to do this with my property. My lease and most other leases say
no subleases for this reason. On what planet would I manage my own property
for a renter and hand over all the revenue to them?

~~~
kcole16
OP makes it clear he would work together with the landlord on this.

~~~
stevesearer
Yeah, the landlords live 30 feet from us and we have a great relationship with
them. So I would just ask them and if they said no, then I wouldn't do it.

As I mentioned in another comment, I was thinking of taking my family to
another country for a month and renting the place out for that entire month to
a single renter to help reduce some of the costs.

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pc86
Click the "web" link under the submission if you hit the WSJ pay wall.

~~~
clamprecht
Whoa cool, is this new? I've been doing it by hand.

It might be better to just do a "site:" search, prepending "site:" to the url.
In this case, the search is:

site:www.wsj.com/articles/big-landlords-airbnb-discuss-partnerships-1450200473

This brings up 1 result, which is the paywalled article.

~~~
pc86
Newish, I think they added it a few months ago. I remember dang mentioning it
but I can't remember if it was a dedicated post or something similar to my
comment above.

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Namrog84
The place I live has recently announced that they are furnishing and renting
out the vacant units to people now. Though they seem to imply its meant for
families of residents for visiting holidays and such. But it still feels a
little like my place is becoming a hotel. Not sure if it will be discontinued
past holidays or if non family will occur.

I

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dsfyu404ed
A problem I see here is that participating landlords are given incentive have
their properties or portions "straw rented" by people who will Airbnb the unit
in order to avoid hotel regulations and side step rent control (because a unit
will supposedly Airbnb at a market rate).

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littletimmy
Why are we allowing these illegal hotels to run anyway? The government needs
to step in and ban Airbnb.

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ape4
Often residential rents are protected. But if you rent out a space then its
commercial so residential protection doesn't apply.

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swingbridge
Not surprising. That's all standard clauses in a lease. For a long list of
reasons you can't treat a rented propert like it's your own and just start
renting it out without having the real landlord in the loop.

Also doesn't get around the usual "hotel" regulations in many cities that
forbid short term rentals, also for a long list of reasons.

~~~
OJFord
Presumably the article's stance is that they'll allow it, rather than it being
a violation (assuming no subletting allowed) of the contract.

I mention it because the headline reads a bit more like "greedy landlords
decide they want your money from letting on airbnb!"

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pcthrowaway
Paywall buster:
[https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd...](https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjh6qWp5-DJAhVl54MKHdvEAEkQqQIIHDAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fbig-
landlords-airbnb-discuss-partnerships-1450200473&usg=AFQjCNEP2uNKg6UQpNEj5Io-
eIS5P1D7Sg&bvm=bv.110151844,d.amc)

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dunk010
Landlord gets paid twice? Nice work if you can get it!

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Canada
If the landlords are willing to indemnify the tenants for subletting via
AirBnB I'd call it a win-win.

~~~
tptacek
How is that a win-win? All the other tenants in the building have to deal with
a small, unregulated hotel being opened in it.

~~~
zeveb
> All the other tenants in the building have to deal with a small, unregulated
> hotel being opened in it.

Is that particularly worse than tenants having to deal with Section 8 tenants
in their midst?

~~~
tptacek
What the fuck would make you write something like that? I live on a block with
S8 renters. They're real people with families who want a safe bed and decent
schools for their kids just like everyone else.

~~~
zeveb
> What the fuck would make you write something like that?

Your own comment some time ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10623102](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10623102)

Why do you think that short-term middle-to-upper-class renters are preferable
neighbours to medium-to-long-term lower-class renters? I saw your comment
elsethread about ease of punishment, which makes some sense, but in my
experience small landlords simply don't care.

Living above a pair of end-stage alcoholics who importuned people on the
sidewalk and called the ambulance for health care every few weeks was far, far
more annoying than the flophouse a few doors down. Then there was the poor
family with 9 people in a two-bedroom unit, with a couple of teenagers who
vandalised and may have been thieves as well (not that upper-class teenagers
aren't hoodlums, of course: many of them are too). Then there was the
prostitute with the shady clientele.

You appear to be opposed to short-term renters, but appear to applaud Section
8. Why the difference?

~~~
tptacek
Yes, that is exactly what I think, and also what the zoning commissioners in
virtually every city think, which is why cities have limitations on short-term
rentals in residential properties _and_ special zoning rules for where you can
put hotels!

