HN user
http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2011/03/30/why-so-many-vac...
Seems like we have a problem with rent control there. Many landlords won't rent in SF because of rent control. They want tenants who leave regularly to take advantage of the rising prices. Not sure whether it's cause or effect, but I just think there's clearly more influential factors than Airbnb here.
well instead of randomly guessing that incorrectly, why not respond with some kind of argument about how it could be possible that the 3k Airbnb SF listings (according to a general search of SF on the site) could influence rent prices? According to this survey, there's 340k rental properties in SF. http://www.nmhc.org/Content.cfm?ItemNumber=55508#large_citie...
There is no correlation between the rise in rental prices in SF and Airbnb. It's absurd to think that they could impact that at this point. A large chunk of the hosts on the site rent out a room in their own homes. If you want someone to blame for the raising prices, I think it's more rational to point the finger at the spate of IPOs and the newly minted folks who are in the buying market at the moment. Or if that's not your cup of tea, then perhaps blame the size of the city (as it can't get any bigger) or even more appropriately, blame the blood hungry landlords who still insist you pay by check and raise their rates by at least 30% every time one of their properties free up.
Either way, just wildly saying that without any substantial evidence is pretty weak.
In SF you could easily rent out a spare room in a 2br apartment for $65-120 per night depending on the quality. I typically do 10 days a month at $100 per night. Sometimes I hire a cleaner, and buy some wine/snacks/breakfast for guests but it's been very easy and I love doing it. Disclaimer: I work for Airbnb.
I have rented out my place (which I own) numerous times. I pay my income taxes through the 1099 Airbnb issues. Since I've started renting, I've made numerous friends I keep in touch with, have had invitations to visit Turkey, Singapore... it has helped me pay my bills... and I've never had a disturbance, nor have my neighbors ever had a problem. I realize not all cases are like this, but Airbnb has truly made my life easier, made me a proud host and broadened my horizons. As a guest I have gotten under the skin of neighborhoods in a matter of days (one time I ate at 3 fancy restaurants in a weekend all of which had month long reservation lists because my host is embedded in the local community)
The beauty of Airbnb and other community marketplaces is that I'm incentivized to make sure things go well. If my neighbors complain, it will become hard to host. If my guests complain, it will become hard to host. If I complain at a hotel? No one cares.
I would happily pay a flat yearly tax to register as a short term rental host. I won't however spend 10s of hours working through ridiculous paperwork, spending thousands of $s to get onside of this antiquated system. We should be thankful of companies like Airbnb, like SideCar, Uber, TaskRabbit, Exec, pushing our outdated world forward.
Just my $.02