
Santa Monica council votes 7-0 to crack down on Airbnb - adamio
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-fi-santa-monica-airbnb-20150512-htmlstory.html
======
tptacek
This is going to happen in most cities; it has to, because the pendulum has
swung too far from "abusive regulation" to "abusive lack of regulation".

People like to invoke the evil "hotel lobby", which I'm sure does exist!, but
it is not even a little bit hard to find loud, angry citizens complaining.
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.

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

I've had nothing but good Airbnb experiences, in SFBA, NYC, and London. I hope
Airbnb works this out. But they don't really hold all the cards here.

~~~
maxharris
_people buy or rent residences in buildings expecting those buildings to be
inhabited by long-term residents_

"expecting" is little slippery - do they have actual contracts spelling that
out?

~~~
saidajigumi
Without delving into the specifics of any particular legislative district,
this is effectively the domain of zoning codes and other legislative tools of
urban planning.

While not a literal contract, certainly a layer of legally encoded social
contracts with a long history.

------
jboggan
As a Santa Monica resident, I think this is great.

Santa Monica has, by some indices, the most expensive hotel rooms in the
state. This has driven a huge demand for short rentals near the beach. I have
no access to numbers but my personal anecdata is interesting for the number of
people I know involved in grey-market short term rentals and the number of
people unable to find available apartments, let alone available apartments
anywhere near the rents 2-3 years ago pre-AirBnB.

I did protracted apartment searches in the same area of Santa Monica in
November 2012 and 2014 and the difference in price and availability was
immense. At the same time I had one friend who was making a full time job out
of "hosting" for AirBnB-ed condos and apartments either bought or rented in
the past year by deep-pocketed "investors" in Malibu and Santa Monica with the
sole purpose of short term rentals. I know another young lady who rents three
apartments and lives in whichever one is earning the least on AirBnb. She nets
about $1000 a month doing this and manages to take 3 single residential units
off the market in the process.

There's a lot of people doing variations on this business model and it is
absolutely pushing out the longer term residents. I've seen many of my beach
friends (mostly involved in entertainment, good living wages but not anything
like tech wages) progressively pushed further and further afield as random
housing events (unit selling, massive renovation, roommate disputes) mean they
cannot afford to relocate anywhere near the place that they are leaving. That
is also despite their earnings increasing through normal career progression.

My parents came to visit last Christmas and they used AirBnB to rent a back
house for a week a few blocks from my apartment. It was great. Do I think that
shouldn't be allowed? No, but considering their host was running a year-round
business out of their home I don't think it is unreasonable to treat them like
a business.

~~~
imaginenore
> _She nets about $1000 a month doing this and manages to take 3 single
> residential units off the market in the process._

That doesn't make any sense. $333 from an apartment per month in Santa Monica.

You've been lied to.

~~~
jboggan
I said nets, not grosses. She has two places rented out 10-20 days a month and
the total revenue pays for all three rents plus about a grand left over. She
lives in whichever apartment seems to get the least interest on AirBnB and
occasionally switches it up.

~~~
melvinmt
Still, netting $1,000 for managing 3 apartments (it takes a lot of work, my
wife used to do this for others), is not really worth the trouble?

~~~
gekkonaut
If this also covers the place she's living, it might not be such a bad deal.

------
jedberg
I'm really torn here. On one hand, as a homeowner, I would be pretty upset if
my neighbors turned their houses into "hotels". There would be a lot of noise
and a lot of people who don't care much about the neighbors since they are
only here for a few days.

On the other hand, I just got back from traveling to Europe, where all of the
bookings we made were AirBnB. My wife and I were traveling with our 4 month
old baby, and there weren't any hotels that could really meet our needs as
well as the apartments that we rented. The trip would have been much harder
without AirBnB.

I think Santa Monica went too far here -- they should have left some wiggle
room for folks who want to rent out their place on weekends and such, like the
folks we rented from in Vienna.

~~~
jonlucc
When your family was travelling, did you make extra noise at the houses and
apartments you rented? Why do you expect most people to disrespect the people
around them if they are only there temporarily?

~~~
jedberg
No, because I'm respectful of others. But I definitely know people who have
the attitude of "well I'll never see these people again!".

Also, when I stay in a real hotel, there have been many times when folks were
noisy and disrespectful.

~~~
rootedbox
And when you are at a hotel and people are acting up.. You can go to the
manager.

What happens when your neighbor decides to rent their place via Air BNB, And
folks are noisy and disrespectful.. Who do you complain to?? The home owner??
Do you think he's going to kick the people out? They are a revenue stream, and
you are not.

Well.. you may say. I'll call the cops. Ok. Your neighbor gets a warning..
then eventually a 300 dollar fine.. Your neighbor can afford a few fines a
month from a few random loud nights as long as the air bnb money keeps coming
in. In fact your neighbor will need to make sure their place is full more
nights if you start calling the cops.

~~~
pas
> you can go to the manager

That's an ugly workaround. I want a solution.

Party Hotels and Shut the Fuck Up Hotels, where walls are not paper thin.

AirBnB can throw a few checkboxes there to manage this, and figure out if a
place is in a residental condominum with a lot of non bnb neighbors, or it's
in the middle of downtown next to all the bars.

------
hackuser
This article explains some of the problems caused by short-term rentals such
as Airbnb: [http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-airbnb-
hous...](http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-airbnb-housing-
market-20150311-story.html)

Also, it seems reasonable that hotels and Airbnb comppete on a level playing
field in terms of tax and regulation.

All that said, I think they need to find solutions that accomodate all
parties: Hotels, short-term rentals, and the housing market for renters.

~~~
marssaxman
Is it reasonable that hotels and my friend with a couple of spare bedrooms in
his house should have to compete on a level playing field in terms of
regulation, inspection, taxation, and the like? Because as far as I can tell
Airbnb does not operate anything; they are just a booking service for people
who rent out spare bedrooms. It doesn't seem reasonable that my friend with
the big house should have to jump through all the same hoops as the
professionals running the Marriott or whatever.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Well, as the guy staying there, I'd like to have SOME guarantee that the place
isn't unsafe, unsanitary, cheating me or spying on me. So as a consumer, then
yes I do want them to jump through all the hoops.

~~~
mason240
Then don't go to AirBnB places. Go to hotels.

It really is that simple. Don't deprive other people of choice because you
don't want to choose.

~~~
hackuser
> Then don't go to AirBnB places. Go to hotels.

That doesn't address safety and taxation issues.

~~~
mason240
It does. If you are concerned with safety issues, then don't go there.

~~~
hackuser
> It does. If you are concerned with safety issues, then don't go there.

The 'free market' doesn't address safety well; that's why we have regulations.
For example, it's not sufficient to say, 'if you are concerned about the
safety of this restaurant's food, don't eat there'. No consumer has enough
information to make that judgment reliably, and many consumers have additional
challenges (consider the elderly, travelers from other countries who lack
English or culture literacy, etc.). Also, the remedy (the Airbnb host gets bad
reviews) is too late if someone is injured or loses their property; the system
has failed at that point.

~~~
humanrebar
> The 'free market' doesn't address safety well; that's why we have
> regulations.

We also have bonding, insurance and civil liability, which serve the same
purpose in a more flexible way.

~~~
hackuser
> We also have bonding, insurance and civil liability, which serve the same
> purpose in a more flexible way.

Those solutions are useful, but only sometimes work and when they do they only
provide money after the fact. In many cases, such as injury, death, or
crippling fraud (e.g., an elderly retiree loses their home and savings),
that's not sufficient.

~~~
humanrebar
The way insurance works is that risky behavior leads to higher premiums.
Insuring a sports car is more expensive because studies show risky driving is
associated with sports cars.

Hosts that don't treat neighbors respectfully or guests safely will quickly
see bonds confiscated and premiums raised until they are out of the business.

Likewise, insurers often provide discounts for good behavior like taking
safety courses, a history without incidents, installing anti theft devices,
etc.

And requiring insurance also gives neighbors a recourse (payouts from the
policy) if the block is set on for or something (though there are already laws
and regulations about that sort of thing).

~~~
dragonwriter
> And requiring insurance also gives neighbors a recourse (payouts from the
> policy) if the block is set on for or something

No, legal liability rules give the neighbors _recourse_. What insurance
and/accountability bond requirements do is reduce the risk that insolvency
will prevent a liability judgment from being satisfied (though one which
exceeds the required coverage may still not be _fully_ satisfied if the liable
party is insolvent.)

------
ecnahc515
While I love Airbnb, it can truely be destructive to housing markets, at least
to an extent. Here in Portland, OR it's beginning to become a larger problem
as housing is getting bought purely to rent out.

I just hope we can come to a point where perhaps there is a way to allow
airbnb to exist, while making it illegal to rent out property purely to rent
it. This could allow it to be more like the bed and breakfast logging that it
tends to feel like. I'm thinking restrictions to aid this are artificial
limits to how many people/how many days per year you can rent out rooms in
your home, which airbnb would be required to record.

I still have no idea how things like sanitation will be handled. Right now an
airbnb host has very little obligation be sanitary like a hotel, except that
it might make their reviews worse.

~~~
ibejoeb
I used to love Airbnb. I've been on their basically since inception and have
stayed in dozens of cities. Everything has been positive. Lately, though, it's
been degrading in a few ways:

1\. Pricing in major markets is no longer competitive with hotels. Since most
Airbnb properties lack anything close to the amenities offered by hotels, it's
just not economically compelling anymore.

2\. The last several times I've stayed, I've felt the effects of the new
scrutiny. I've been to clandestine meetings with hosts, purportedly on
premises, only later to find out that the listed address is false. "Enter
through the alley door," and, "Say you're my cousin, if anyone asks" are
typically elements of the conversations. That's not what I pay for.

Now, my first choice is hotels, and it's only the rare case that I opt for
Airbnb.

~~~
72deluxe
Very interesting, thanks. I have been deliberately going to hotels to avoid
these problems - you know what you're getting with a hotel (usually).

------
therobot24
Used Airbnb recently for a trip to LA for a friend's wedding. Myself and a few
friends were able to rent a house in the hills which was way nicer, less
expensive, and significantly easier than organizing a block of hotel rooms.
Aside from moments where some would have to wait due to both showers being
used, the trip was much more enjoyable.

While I agree that some rules need to be adjusted for Airbnb type of rentals,
I really can't think of a reason why anyone would want to straight up ban it.

> The rules legalize “home-sharing” – in which the occupant rents a couch,
> spare bedroom or backyard unit – but require hosts to obtain a business
> license and pay Santa Monica’s 14% hotel tax.

Is this going to be the new loophole?

~~~
pneumatics
The owner must be present during home-sharing, so each property owner should
be limited to sharing one property at a time. Since the properties must be
licensed, it should be easy to shut down the multiple-property Airbnb
landlords.

What this might enable is "sharing" a huge property, say an apartment complex,
essentially opening up a new class of low- or no-amenity hotels.

------
callmeed
I have a _friend_ in Santa Monica who rents 2 apartments. One he rents very
cheap via some sort of rent control/housing assistance program. He then
proceeds to rent the rooms out on AirBnB. He gets enough business to pay for
the apartment he lives in and live frugally without having full-time
employment.

It's hard to blame cities when this (and other) kind of abuse is going on.

~~~
aikah
> One he rents very cheap via some sort of rent control/housing assistance
> program

He is probably not untitled to housing assistance if he has another apartment.
He should make as much money as possible and stop that scheme because if he
get caught doing that he may go to prison for fraud.

~~~
beachstartup
it's probably a discounted sub-let from someone who has a lease from 10+ years
ago.

it's very common in santa monica.

------
kriro
I think I get all points of the debate but the key question for me is...why
are there so many airbnb rentals. Clearly there's some sort of demand, clearly
the hotel econsystem doesn't handle it well enough. That's the root issue that
needs investigation. Tighter regulations of airbnb are more of a hotfix than a
long term solution imo

My uninformed gut instinct without doing any research is that the hotel market
is probably over regulated and the prices are artificially high or there are
simply not enough available rooms (lobby mini-monopolies or whatever you want
to call it) and that's the reason why people flock to lower priced/other
available options.

I guess a study on residential to short term rent demand would be helpful.

~~~
xtian
Yes: this is precisely the issue that most people seem to be ignoring.

I traveled in Europe a bit last year and was amazed at the affordable options
for travelers. Between nicer hostels and hotels that offered small single
rooms with a communal bathroom, I was able to get a clean place to sleep for
$25-70/night. I haven't seen that in the US outside of AirBnB.

Most US hotels give you a huge room with a huge bed for a high price, and
they're either located right in the middle of downtown or all the way on the
edge of the city so you'd need to rent a car.

When I'm traveling, I much prefer to ditch the bullshit standard amenities
like room service, a pool, continental breakfast, etc. and get a simple room
in a part of town where people actually live. Even more so if I'm visiting
friends.

Not sure what in our regulations makes this unpopular, but it's the real
problem.

------
staunch
I just moved out of downtown Santa Monica, from an apartment building that was
swamped with Airbnb renters that caused all kinds of problems.

Airbnb is doing good _and_ evil in the world. They deserve to be forced to
reduce the evil to reasonable levels. Maybe apartment buildings shouldn't be
generally permitted, for example.

~~~
72deluxe
This would be an interesting rule to enforce in places like Barcelona, where
every house is an apartment (as far as I remember after visiting)

------
natrius
There seems to be a general sense that short-term rentals make housing
unaffordable. I disagree. We came up with the technology to scale a given
piece of land to hundreds of residents at a low marginal cost a long time ago.
Unfortunately, we've outlawed that technology in the vast majority of the
American urbanized area. As a result, the demand to live on a particular piece
of land far outstrips the supply of homes, and this competition makes prices
skyrocket.

Build more homes. Build a lot of them. It's the only way to keep our cities
affordable.

------
nostromo
I just don't think city councils are going to be able to put a billion dollar
genie back in the bottle.

Airbnb is a p2p market. When regulation attacks p2p markets, they don't die,
they adapt.

Airbnb itself might die like Napster, but someone else will find a way to take
their place. Maybe the company that replaces it will be based outside US
borders, safe from any subpoena for rental records.

~~~
untog
_Maybe the company that replaces it will be based outside US borders, safe
from any subpoena for rental records._

That only works when activity is online-only and difficult to trace. If you're
renting your apartment out it's pretty easy to detect.

~~~
eropple
Exactly. This is the same thing as rubber-hose cryptanalysis--if somebody can
get hold of that meat carrier for your brilliant brain, they can figure out
what you're doing. And so AirBNB will lose. (They've knuckled under wherever
confronted.) So will the next one.

------
dwg
I'm a supporter of airbnb.

However, government has a right to close loopholes in existing regulations
(e.g. hotel tax) that are opened by the changes in the environment (e.g.
availability of new technology such as airbnb). It's unfortunate that they
chose to do this by an outright ban. It's especially unfortunate for
homeowners who can't as easily leave the community if they disagree with the
councils decision.

As I read through the comments in this and previous posts about airbnb, I
noticed that a majority of issues cited by angry neighbors are related to
renting of units in apartment buildings, as opposed to single family homes.
I'm not suggesting that there are more abuses of the service in apartment
buildings (though here may well be for a number of reasons), merely that the
abuses are more troublesome in these cases because of the resources shared by
neighbors (staircases, walls, etc.). It seems to me that the owners or
managers of apartment buildings, and the homeowners associations of condos,
should be able to enact reasonable limits to short-term rentals of their own
properties in their rental agreements. To me this is a much more desirable way
to attack the problem, rather than a hasty ban, as it may give people more
choice in the matter. I say may because it's probably equally likely that
apartment buildings would blindly start banning it as well. Nonetheless if I
am someone who cares about using the service, I would try to find apartment
that allows it.

------
sologoub
The article seems to highlight a legitimate use case that the regulation is
screwing up, which also happens to be Airbnb's original purpose - to sublet
while you are out of town or otherwise not using the space.

Sure, Airbnb has grown way past that, but in my mind there is a very big
difference between running a business on Airbnb and subletting while you are
away to help pay for a trip. A provision with a cap of how many nights a year
one could sublet without being considered a hotel would be a lot more
sensible.

While I'm sure it would be difficult to enforce, services like Airbnb and
HomeAway would probably cooperate in disclosing booked stays per address. It
wouldn't be that hard to link the data together and spot violators. I'm sure
residents would help as well.

Taxing is sensible though.

~~~
iamdave
_While I 'm sure it would be difficult to enforce, services like Airbnb and
HomeAway would probably cooperate in disclosing booked stays per address. It
wouldn't be that hard to link the data together and spot violators._

I can say with first hand knowledge, that HomeAway at least engages with
cities politically to build cases for short-term rental advocacy from economic
development to enabling and increasing the attractiveness of tourism in cities
where they operate. They setup sessions with city and community leaders and
work on actionable regulation and legislation with cities to introduce fair
laws for rentals.

I'm no shill for HomeAway, but I do have a close personal friend who works on
the Government Affairs team and have witnessed their efforts with my own eyes.
At least in their case, HomeAway works with cities, instead of against them.

------
Futurebot
Maybe AirBnB needs a standards enforcement division. A 24-hour service where
you call them up, make your complaint, and they send over some big scary
people to knock on the offender's door and ask them to "turn it down" or "pick
up their garbage." Local government offices and the landlords themselves can't
respond quickly enough (the former can't/won't send someone there at 2AM and
it'd be pretty tough to get the latter to run over to your apartment for this
sort of thing.) Basically AirBnB police.

------
31reasons
>>Estimates that more than 7,000 houses and apartments have been taken off the
rental market in metro Los Angeles for use as short-term rentals.

As I am searching for a good apartment in LA, this makes me bit upset.

~~~
prostoalex
Why is "build more" not a solution for this problem?

~~~
9999
Because the very same Santa Monican NIMBYs that just passed that law have made
it impossible to build more housing:
[http://www.santamonicanext.org/2015/05/santa-monica-city-
cou...](http://www.santamonicanext.org/2015/05/santa-monica-city-council-says-
no-to-5-story-housing-on-boulevards/)

As an aside, if anyone is looking to locate a startup in Los Angeles, do your
future employees a favor and avoid Santa Monica. Downtown LA and Culver City
are far more sensible options and allow for a reasonable commute and/or nearby
housing at lower prices than Santa Monica.

~~~
prostoalex
Phase 2 of Expo line is scheduled to open early next year
[http://www.metro.net/projects/expo-santa-
monica/](http://www.metro.net/projects/expo-santa-monica/)

------
tdees40
We just rented a place for a month on AirBnb only to find out that the owner
kept two cats there (undisclosed); my wife has severe cat allergies. Now we're
having to fight tooth and nail to get our money back, and the property owner
is saying that her policy is no refunds, period. So yeah, I kinda get why
people can cozy up to the idea of regulation.

~~~
baddox
That seems like a very good reason to cozy up to the idea that you should be
able to get your money back from a host who misrepresents the property being
rented, but not a particularly good reason to cozy up to the idea of arbitrary
short-term rental regulation.

~~~
tdees40
Sure. But who's going to enforce that "should"? This is why regulation is
popular; it's about recourse.

~~~
baddox
Regardless of who enforces the rules, my point is that the rule prohibiting
the misrepresentation of a business transaction is much more reasonable than
the rule prohibiting (or significantly limiting) short-term rentals.

------
jokoon
I recently saw an airbnb advertising in my city in france.

The more I hear about uber and airbnb and those websites who try to replace
existing services that doesn't use internet, the more it looks like some
libertarian business model.

I'm not against it, but once insurances and the law adapt to it, I wonder if
it will really be attractive anymore.

------
DigitalSea
Sadly that's what happens when you challenge an existing business model and
industry who are afraid and will spare no expense to get legislation passed
preventing competition from battering your profits.

I understand that services like Airbnb and Uber are unregulated, but instead
of working with these companies to draft legislation that addresses the
concerns, you're seeing draconian bills just outright banning them. It doesn't
matter what the people want, when there is money involved, you can bet the
side who doesn't necessarily make the most noise, but has the most money will
win.

Whether or not politicians, corporations and residents afraid of change like
it or not, the sharing economy is here to stay and will always find a way
around any opposition. Look at Uber, opposed not only in multiple states in
the USA, but also in other states in other countries.

~~~
colept
Competition from hotels is just one side of the issue.

The other side is safety and security. I lived in a building next to a hostel
for a year and a half. It was well maintained and the guests were regulated.
Never had any complaints about the guests. On the other hand, my next door
neighbor rented out his condo AirBnB style for a few months. It was obnoxious,
the owner was remote and the guests were never regulated. The common areas
were trashed, the guests were loud, and none of it mattered because they only
had to deal with the consequences for a short term.

The fact of the matter is: there needs to be a distinction in regulation
between short term and long term housing. As much as I am a fan of startups
that make life convenient, the unregulated nature of AirBnB makes life
difficult for anyone else not in the exchange. That's what hotels are for, to
abstract that difficulty so that it only involves those within the boundaries
of the exchange: the guests, the owners, and the service.

------
snowwrestler
VRBO has been around for longer than AirBnB, and specializes in full-unit or
whole-house short-term rentals. But I never see them mentioned in these sorts
of articles, either as a company that is affected by these types of
regulations, or as a company that has taken a public position for or against
these types of regulations.

Why is that? On previous stories the issue has been bedroom rentals, or
listing rented apartments (i.e. short-term subleasing). But this seems to
target whole-unit short-term rentals, even if they're owned. That seems to be
right in the VRBO wheelhouse. For example: 158 listings:

[http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/usa/california/los-
ange...](http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/usa/california/los-angeles-
county/santa-monica?amenities=bookable)

~~~
eropple
I can't speak to VRBO, but I know that HomeAway is very particular about
chucking out bad renters and works very closely with local governments to
build fair legislation around short-term rentals.

(Disclaimer, such as it is: former TripAdvisor employee, incidentally touched
their Vacation Rentals stuff a few years ago, don't really care about it and I
use HomeAway.)

------
coliveira
I think this is predictable in many more cities across the world. There is
already people buying properties with the sole goal of converting them into
airbnb units. And this on areas which are supposed to be residential, which is
a big problem for people who happen to actually live there.

------
song
In my apartment building there's an apartment that is rented out through
Airbnb. There's also an apartment rented out to two students...

We have a lot more issues with those two students and their friends than with
all of the Airbnb short term renters. It's anecdotical but I don't believe
that short term renters are more likely to cause issues.

Airbnb's concept is also not new. Before Airbnb people rented apartments on
Homelidays. It's interesting that thanks to the critical mass of Airbnb and
their marketing people become more aware of it.

------
euphoria83
Any new innovation has social impact and a part of the society, including the
ruling bodies, react by trying to reverse the change. Any innovation will have
some negative impact on the society because of lack of laws regulating the
change. AirBnB is facing it, so is Tesla, and Uber. But, it is apparent, at
least for the previously listed examples, that these are ideas whose time has
come. I do not get worried by such decisions of ruling bodies. They are only
temporary.

------
will_brown
I wish the article explored the penalties associated with continued rentals in
violation of the new regulations. Obviously there could be tax penalties but
I'm curious if there are additional civil fines, potential criminal
violations, or hell maybe civil forfeiture laws might apply (I saw that tounge
and cheek but after another front page post that may be a reality?). Would
airbnb pay costs and lawyers fees like Uber has done?

~~~
hemantv
AirBnb most of the time brush off their hands. The quality is terrible in some
places.

------
jpatokal
So renting entire apartment is banned, but renting parts of it are OK? Apply
the "Singapore solution": lock up one bedroom, so the owner can claim they
live there, and rent out the rest. (Under Singapore public housing rules,
subleasing entire apartments is forbidden, but renting out parts is OK. Sounds
familiar, no?)

------
qooleot
Our city (Raleigh) had the last B&B close, and the owners blamed it on Airbnb:

[http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/wake-
county/...](http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/wake-
county/article18917151.html)

------
eonw
good, now they just need to shutdown the other regulation skirting companies
like Uber as well.

It's not fair these companies skirt well known and age old laws to create an
unfair advantage(and wealth) for themselves, by simply ignoring those laws.
Play by the same rules as your competitors do and see how well you fair.
Disruption by evading legalities isn't really all that impressive... the
cartels and mobsters have done it for decades.

~~~
Sideloader
Libertarianism, i.e the deluded belief that unfettered capitalism is perfect
and the panacea for all the world's ills, is very popular in certain SV
startup circles. Uber, for example, blatantly ignoring local bylaws and
regulations makes perfect sense when seen through libertarian tinted goggles.

------
CodeWriter23
This isn't about noisy renters. It's about rental arbitragers driving the
price of rental properties through the roof.

------
toolz
god forbid that a governing body gives the low influence nuisances less
attention than the powerful social nuisances. Slumlords all over the place,
but of course the first thing on the governing bodies agenda is to make sure
nothing disrupts the hugely homogeneous industry that is room rentals.

------
eryman
This has to be bribery. There would be no reason to pass this if they were
working for the people.

------
zouhair
And this should also happen to Uber.

~~~
eropple
I'm critical of Uber because Uber is exploitative and kinda shitty, but I see
a difference in kind here. AirBNB causes negative externalities to people
around the participants in the transaction. Uber, to the best of my knowledge,
doesn't.

------
xbryanx
I assume this is a story about their strict JS style guide?

[https://github.com/airbnb/javascript](https://github.com/airbnb/javascript)

------
Old_Thrashbarg
A win for the hotel industry lobby groups and a loss for the general public.

~~~
themoonbus
Unless you're part of the general public who lives in a desirable area, and
your rent is increasing because limited housing is being turned into
unregulated hotels.

I should say, I've used AirBnB many times and always had a great experience,
but this isn't a clear cut "good" vs "evil" issue.

~~~
ripley12
"limited housing" is the key point. Most North American municipalities have
painful and binding limits on the number of housing units allowed:
[http://www.metafilter.com/148375/Anyone-have-a-Pop-up-
blocke...](http://www.metafilter.com/148375/Anyone-have-a-Pop-up-blocker-For-
houses#5989161)

Banning AirBnB is at best going to lower demand a little bit, it' not going to
fix the much larger underlying problem.

~~~
themoonbus
Completely agree. I'm just saying it's not a clear cut issue of the public vs.
the hotels.

There are legitimate arguments for limiting someone's ability to rent out
their living space to short term tenants that have nothing to do with the
hotel lobby. As someone who lives in an apartment building with fairly thin
walls, I can sympathize with some one not wanting a parade of short term
tenants as their neighbor.

------
rajacombinator
Folks, let's be honest. This is mostly about ornery landlords who are bitter
that they are missing out on perceived higher rates for their properties. Add
in a few nosy neighbors who have nothing else to do to make them feel
important other than file complaints with their local HOA/city/whatever.

AirBNB should seriously hire a full time team of economists to publish studies
defending their company. The efficiency gains are tremendous.

