
I Lost My Life to Airbnb - ALee
https://narratively.com/i-lost-my-life-to-airbnb/
======
gpspake
Personally, I think this is cool and props to the author for pulling it off.
However, the thing that strikes the more scrutinous side of me about all this
- the elephant in the room, if you will - is that what the author is doing
almost certainly conflicts with her rental agreement and were she to be
brought to court over it, it would probably be a clear case in the favor of
the lessor and she might even have to pay back what she had earned. I feel
like this is sort of the dream airbnb sells and here's a model case of someone
achieving that dream but at the end of the day it's only possible because
she's breaking a legal agreement; this probably wouldn't work if she were
responsible for the higher cost of the mortgage and maintenance that comes
with owning the property. In this case, the fan falls from the ceiling and she
likely just calls her landlord to fix it. So the landlord assumes the cost to
fix it and she continues to profit by subletting the apartment for
significantly more than she's paying. Airbnb is basically facilitating a
situation where the tenant gets to double dip. They profit off of an asset
they don't own and don't assume much liability for and the owner is ultimately
the loser. I wonder how this will all play out for airbnb on a larger scale
over time.

~~~
smt88
You're right, and on top of that, her behavior artificially inflates rental
prices (by shifting some of her rental costs to tourists).

In practice, illegal Airbnb's seem somewhat rare, especially compared to the
millions of Ikea-furnished semi-professional rat holes that have taken over
the platform.

There are tools that landlords can pay for that detect illegal sublets based
on location and supposedly photos too.

~~~
skybrian
Prices going up would be neither natural nor artificial. Some people would
gain (the people renting and tourists) and others would lose (long term
renters).

I think it's enough to say that it shouldn't happen without the landlord's
consent.

~~~
smt88
> _Prices going up would be neither natural nor artificial._

By artificial, I meant that the rental market would be distorted by Airbnb
hosts.

Good example: a friend of mine had parents who loaned him money to qualify for
a lease. He couldn't afford the lease, so he used Airbnb to make up the
difference.

This meant that non-Airbnb hosts were now competing with Airbnb hosts for the
same leases, which is what I was labeling "unnatural".

~~~
tlb
In fact, anything anyone does to earn extra income to afford a better home
distorts housing prices. It'd have the same effect if they made the same money
running a software consulting business in their extra bedroom.

Housing prices in desirable downtowns are mostly distortion these days. It's
been a long time since they corresponded to the cost of construction.

~~~
smt88
This isn't "starting a software business" \-- it's violating a lease.

Not everyone can or will take that risk.

~~~
tlb
In fact, many residential leases prohibit running a business out of the
premises [0]. But these clauses are rarely enforced unless you're causing
complaints.

[0] See clause 7 at [https://cozy.co/blog/8-important-lease-clauses-for-
landlords...](https://cozy.co/blog/8-important-lease-clauses-for-landlords/)
for typical terms

~~~
smt88
I lived in a condo building that fined an owner $60k for 2 years of illegal
Airbnb leasing (for a $300k condo).

I also had a friend who was evicted for leasing a rental.

Running a business out of the premises is rarely enforced, but it also rarely
creates risk or loss for the landlord the way Airbnb does.

