Airbnb Preps for ‘Anti-Party’ Summer, Wants Neighbors to Snitch

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-24/airbnb-preps-for-anti-party-summer-wants-neighbors-to-narc

by htrp • 3 years ago

28 29 3 years ago

bloomberg.com

jqpabc1233• 3 years ago

Why do a lot of people rent and go on vacation? To party and have fun.

Seems like Airbnb is kinda at odds with one of it's main reasons for existing.

tssva• 3 years ago

Airbnb never existed for people to rent houses for 1 or 2 nights to throw large parties causing significant damage to the property.

zamnos• 3 years ago

What word would you like to use for a gathering of a dozen or so adults, meeting for one or two nights (colloquially known as Friday and Saturday, because adults have jobs) where there is zero damage to the property? Because most people I know would call that a party.

Most people I know also don't own ridiculous mansions, so have been using AirBNB to rent locations for these events (again, causing no property damage). They are fine switching to VRBO/whatever but these are expensive locations so it seems strange that Airbnb wouldn't want the revenue.

jrm42• 3 years ago

This is...not a brilliant response. Cars never existed to be crashed, food never existed to be contaminated.

It's (perhaps) Airbnb's job to anticipate this and act accordingly. Or perhaps the hosts?

jqpabc1233• 3 years ago

As it currently exists, Airbnb rents lots of houses for 1 or 2 nights that are ideally suited for throwing a large party.

If they don't want to do this, they can always stop. Or maybe demand an adequate damage deposit ... or a longer term lease.

Otherwise, it seems they are at odds with a lot of their customer base.

biomcgary• 3 years ago

My setup encourage self-filtering. I bought a two-house property that is both my residence and an Airbnb. The listing indicates that I'm next door, so I have a quick response time for guest needs. Picture show the fence and large amount of space between the two houses. Whenever people do inquire about proximity (rarely), they never book, which is great. Never had a complaint from neighbors even though an Airbnb two doors down (with a remote owner) gets them regularly.

If all hosts/property owners were required to live within a very short distance of the property (and a cap on total # of properties, I think the changes would improve Airbnb (but open a massive market opportunity for competitors).

charlie03• 3 years ago

100% agree. It would also stop investors from coming in and buying up all the properties.

red-iron-pine• 3 years ago

...or you just by the whole row / entire block. Or pull a Vancouver, where you buy a house, put your do-nothing nephew in it, then use that as an excuse to pick up more property nearby.

DiscourseFan3• 3 years ago

https://archive.is/kydCM

DiscourseFan3• 3 years ago

I just feel like the more likely scenario, when you have an 8 bedroom house listed for $1,000 a night, is not that some large, extraordinarily wealthy family will rent it out for a weekend getaway, but rather a group of 20-30 adults who've pooled their money together. I would even argue that these mansions or mcmansions are seeing more value as venues for parties than as actual living spaces in 90% of cases. It's just like in San Francisco: all the houses are owned by investment firms and sit there completely uninhabited. The same here, most of these large mansions are AirBnB are just taking up space. At least when people throw parties, that space is actually being utilized for a social purpose.

schwartzworld3• 3 years ago

One anecdote: we rented a place like this (on VRBO.com) for our wedding. We paid $8000 for the week. Had the wedding on the large lawn. All of our families stayed over in the house and a bunch of friends crashed on the actual wedding night as well. The 8000 hurt a lot less considering it meant lodging, and not using a wedding venue saved a ton of money on food and drinks.

charlie03• 3 years ago

What's with venues charging extra for weddings?

tapvt• 3 years ago

I live in a nice neighborhood, but am a long-term tenant. One night, late, there was a huge party at a nearby short-term rental.

I asked, politely, for them to turn the music down so I could sleep.

They responded by throwing anything they could get their hands on over the fence, including cinder blocks, bricks and the like.

So, I’m not a huge fan of any of that. Thankfully, it was an isolated incident.

nate_meurer• 3 years ago

Do you know the owner? Most owners will take a hard line on renters doing that kind of shit. VRBO lets them take the security deposit with few questions asked. Otherwise, if it happens again, get photos and send them AirBnB. The renter will be banned from the platform, and depending on their response, the owner could be in trouble as well.

whoomp12342• 3 years ago

can airbnb just go away so people can afford to buy homes again?

charlie03• 3 years ago

Good. Parties are bad business for everyone except the partiers, they generate a lot of noise for the neighbors and put much more wear and tear in everything.

Still, I see Airbnb allowing these on a case by case basis. The problem is that event centers charge and arm and a leg, especially so if it's a wedding. As long as noise can't bother neighbors and the owner is aware of the party, I don't see a problem.

Airbnb Preps for ‘Anti-Party’ Summer, Wants Neighbors to Snitch

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