patrick.net

https://www.reddit.com/r/AirBnB/comments/yt3kxv/help_please_my_guest_is_a_prostitute_giving/

Help please. My guest is a prostitute giving services from my apartment

Off course I cant know for sure, but I received complaints from building administration that she is receiving 5-6 male visitors per night.

WookieMan says

RWSGFY says

Shit like this is why I've been going to Fiji for my beach vacatios fix for the last 5-6 years. Still love Hawaii but for a family with kids the value is not there.

Fiji is a fucking flight for me from the Midwest.

So is Hawaii.

Booger says

https://www.reddit.com/r/AirBnB/comments/yt3kxv/help_please_my_guest_is_a_prostitute_giving/

Help please. My guest is a prostitute giving services from my apartment

Off course I cant know for sure, but I received complaints from building administration that she is receiving 5-6 male visitors per night.

CHARGE MORE!!!

Eric Holder says

So is Hawaii.

Domestic. $11.40pp to Hawaii. International fees are killer. Just booked a flight to Phoenix for $5.60 one way in late January. Don't have my plans laid out yet. Might fly up to Bozeman, MT after. No lodging or car. Food, golf, beer and snowboarding. I'm spoiled.

Would love to go to Fiji though. Need to explore that points realm. All this shit can be done for free basically. I'm a Caribbean guy though. Short flight. Minimal points. I do want to see the southern Pacific and Southeast Asia.

Hotel corporations create additional buildings and units without affecting residential supply and demand. They add to an area. They create jobs and always make a positive impact. Even if they go out of business, a building remains, that may be renovated and turned into residential units. This is done without driving up housing prices to unacceptable levels. Hotels themselves do not affect residential house prices.

No offense but at this point, every day people bragging about how smart they are, because they can borrow money to mortgage a house make money on AIR-BNB really bothers me. These AIR-BNB motivated purchases gobble up the supply of existing homes and apartment units - for renting purposes. Far more existing units are gobbled up vs. new units being built in respect to AIR-BNB. And people are not selling their homes/units when they can rent them out on AIR-BNB further restricting the supply of additional units, driving up the prices.

Why? So people can sit back on their lazy asses and collect rents without working, inventing, creating, facilitating, improving, solving, contributing or doing anything. It's called parasite economics and it really bothers me.

I can't comment on this thread because I'm emotionally compromised when it comes to this subject.

No need to be upset or jealous of those who borrowed to buy their AirBnB units in the last 2-3 years. Soon many of them will get foreclosed due to cashflow difficulties. In the process, between the buy and the liquidation sale, they will essentially have provided liquidity for releasing those units from previous owners who wanted high sale prices, funds for renovating the units, and buyers who will want low prices after foreclosure and liquidation.

Hotel buildings can not be easily converted into apartment buildings due to most hotels not being extended-stay hotels with kitchens. The floor plans are entirely wrong, plus electricals and the plumbing. The high rise buildings efficient for hotels are also not desirable for most residential purposes. Not sure why you think hotels provide jobs whereas AirBnB etc. units requiring the same cleaning and booking would not result in jobs. If anything, the latter would result in more free labor, instead of unionized labor and/or illegal labor, both of which are essentially forms of unfree / semi-slavery labor due to economy of scale of hotels making unionization and slave-labor trafficking profitable. There is a reason why the governor of the ganster state of IL is from a family hotel fortune. The need for building hotels and tearing down hotels as a region's tourism fluctuates is quite a waste.

Besides remote-working allowing travel while working remotely, a big part of the drive for building/house owners to turn to short-term rental in the last 2-3 years is due to rent payment moratorium imposed in many cities and states. Instead of letting dead-beats wear the building and use utility while not paying, renting to travelers who pay make a lot of sense. Compared to long-term rental, short-term rental is actually a lot of work for the owner, so it's not at all "sit back on their lazy asses and collect rents without working."

For some regions of the country that have a lot of old housing stock (while suffering from housing shortage, like the Northeast), a big part of the problem is housing-stock vs. demand mismatch: a lot of the housing stock was built more than a century ago when typical households had many children so many bedrooms (typically 4 or more) whereas today's typical household only requires 1 or 2 bedrooms. In many locations, there are literally laws against more than 3 unrelated people sharing an apartment; plus section-8 housing where there might have been children years ago but now the single mother continues to stay in a 4BR house after the children have grown up and left simply because she is only responsible for paying a pittance if she stays with Section-8 paying the rest, whereas if she moves she would have to pay much more out of her own pocket even for a much smaller apartment. So it is a situation of both housing shortage and under-utilization of existing housing stock taking place at the same time, largely due to government regulations. The AirBnB wave in some ways provided the incentive for owners and/or new owners after purchase to convert some of that housing stock into extended stay BnB housing, which make them closer to what 1BR, 2BR and studio units are like. In many cases also utilizing parts of existing buildings that could not be legally rented out long-term, such as basement, attic, guest suites, etc.. The AirBnB wave provided the incentive to turn them into habitable space while avoiding the local drugged and/or criminal population that would otherwise be attracted to sub-prime housing (which normally is a big reason why landlords don't find it worthwhile to finish those subprime parts of the house in the past; providing housing service is not just "sit back on their lazy asses and collect rents without working" either; there is a lot of executive decision making that can not have bad consequences handed off to shareholders or tax-payers while taking a golden parachute like running hotel corporation or public housing project). To the extent that many government bureaucrats got involved in buying AirBnB's in the past half decade, that also give them some training on how to survive and prosper in the competitive economy instead of their habit of "sitting back on their lazy asses and collect" economic rent via government sinecures.

WookieMan says

Eric Holder says

So is Hawaii.

Domestic. $11.40pp to Hawaii. International fees are killer. Just booked a flight to Phoenix for $5.60 one way in late January.

These are bus ticket prices. You aren't taking Greyhound, are you? I mean, it's possible for Phoenix but could be tough for Hawaii...

RWSGFY says

Shit like this is why I've been going to Fiji for my beach vacatios fix for the last 5-6 years. Still love Hawaii but for a family with kids the value is not there.

@RWSGFY do you have any advice on flights, places to stay?

Hugh_Mongous says

WookieMan says

Eric Holder says

So is Hawaii.

Domestic. $11.40pp to Hawaii. International fees are killer. Just booked a flight to Phoenix for $5.60 one way in late January.

These are bus ticket prices. You aren't taking Greyhound, are you? I mean, it's possible for Phoenix but could be tough for Hawaii...

Flying. It's the 9/11 fee or whatever everyone pays for on a flight, so in essence free. Points my man.

I've only paid for 2 flights in the last 5-6 years and that was a solo trip and I wanted first class because I was going out to Bozeman before Southwest flew there. So flew United since I was bringing my snowboard. Discount airlines like Frontier would have been the same price as a first class ticket with the checked snowboard and carryon.

You can get a bunch of free flight solo on Southwest if you just open 2 credit card. Don't do that if you're not responsible with paying it back. Love or hate Southwest, no airline can beat it in the points game for free flying. Mind you we have 3 kids too and they travel with us 80% of the time. We fly about 7-10 times a year, wife more for work. Hell she just had her quarterly meeting. Average about 45 night a year in a hotel work. So we also get point/kickbacks there as well. And those are rooms we don't pay for.

If you want to take 2 flights a year for free just put your daily monthly/expenses that you can on the CC and search SW every morning with your coffee (Tuesdays are best). It's kind of fun. Leave for Mexico tomorrow morning. Staying at a RUI all inclusive, upgraded swimout suite for 5 nights. $900 for two. It take effort to learn this stuff but once you do it's like riding a bike. I need to learn my overseas points game outside of this hemisphere.

Reality says

No need to be upset or jealous of those who borrowed to buy their AirBnB units in the last 2-3 years. Soon many of them will get foreclosed due to cashflow difficulties. In the process, between the buy and the liquidation sale, they will essentially have provided liquidity for releasing those units from previous owners who wanted high sale prices, funds for renovating the units, and buyers who will want low prices after foreclosure and liquidation.

Most of these are exactly that though, vacation rentals. There're not necessarily places people would "want" to live. I would never have lived in my parents condo in Navarre Beach, FL yet I love the area. The unit was a basic 2/2 and would have been great without kids. Still wouldn't have wanted to live there.

So it's not really freeing up housing inventory as a primary dwelling in my opinion. Someone will just buy and rent it out again. I mean who wants to live in a place where you'll never have neighbors? Sure you can meet some interesting people that are on vacation, but socially I need to trust you for you to get into my circle and be a friend. That takes time and would be tough in vacation areas. And everyone there year round is either retired or works in the vacation rental, hotel or restaurant industry. Sounds like a fun crowd....

RWSGFY says

Booger says

https://www.reddit.com/r/AirBnB/comments/yt3kxv/help_please_my_guest_is_a_prostitute_giving/

Help please. My guest is a prostitute giving services from my apartment

Off course I cant know for sure, but I received complaints from building administration that she is receiving 5-6 male visitors per night.

CHARGE MORE!!!

Or at least charge more for the cleaning! She must be using a lot of water with all the bathing and laundry.

Reality says

Compared to long-term rental, short-term rental is actually a lot of work for the owner, so it's not at all "sit back on their lazy asses and collect rents without working."

I do both and that is correct except even my long terms are a lot of work. Then again, I'm not a CA landlord and like to keep them in good shape. It's always telling when someone states we "just collect rents" rather than provide a service that they are clueless and haven't done it.

I've done vacation rentals and I would advise against it. Tenants will destroy your property and steal any of value in it and it will happen over and over. Much better option is a full time rental once you get a great tenant it's good income.

beershrine says

I've done vacation rentals and I would advise against it. Tenants will destroy your property and steal any of value in it and it will happen over and over. Much better option is a full time rental once you get a great tenant it's good income.

Five years so far with nearly perfect guests. I get around 100/year and only about 1% of them are a pain in the ass. But not too bad. I posted on here before how one bent a small frying pan I had into the shape of a taco - that's it. It's appreciated 50% (paid cash, no mortgage) and I'm doing quite well on the revenue. I generally gross around 100K/year and keep about 1/3rd of that after all is said and done (taxes, expenses etc.,) plus I get to expense trips to Maui!

I suspect it depends on where you do it and what platform you used. I would never use AirBNB for instance and people tend to be in a good mood when they travel to Maui. Lots of old people and honeymooners. As they say, "Hawaii is for the newly wed or nearly dead".

I've had great luck with tenants in my long terms going on 10 years now as well.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pettyrevenge/comments/yxwech/my_gf_got_an_illegal_airbnb_ring_in_her_apartment/

My GF got an illegal Airbnb ring in her apartment complex busted

https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/airbnb-vrbo-short-term-rentals-home-sharing-ordinance-los-angeles-mcgill-wachsmuth-study

New Report Says Nearly Half Of LA’s Airbnb, Vrbo Listings May Be Breaking The Law

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/28/1145709106/nyc-could-lose-10-000-airbnb-listings-because-of-new-short-term-rental-regulatio

NYC could lose 10,000 Airbnb listings because of new short-term rental regulations

https://www.reddit.com/r/AirBnB/comments/1044j3r/a_warning_for_travelers_booking_shortterm_airbnb/

I recently learned the hard way about the risks of booking short-term Airbnb rentals in Bangkok. Upon arriving at the building where I had booked a condo, I was confronted by a security guard who questioned my presence and became angry when I mentioned that I had rented the property on Airbnb. The guard proceeded to pull out a stack of documents and point to a specific phrase stating that "Airbnb Daily & Weekly Rentals are Illegal in Thailand - Hotel Act, Immigration Act, and Building Control Act."

I left the building and contacted Airbnb to report the issue. However, I was disappointed to learn that the company was not willing to take any responsibility for this and stated it was the guest's responsibility to ensure that the condo was legal - I was informed that my booking was non-refundable.

We utilized an airBnB in London around Kensington area. Close to the underground, and V&A, etc....
Great location and cost a fraction of what we would have paid at a hotel.
The place was a bit run down - but had enough bedrooms/couches for family and friends, with a working kitchen.
Dryer didn't work - but that is common in Europe for some reason. They like to hang dry all clothes - even in the winter!
Bathroom was obscenely nice - the English seem to love their bathrooms: heated floor, heated towel rack, etc etc...
It was a great time.

It was my first time utilizing AirBnb. I think if you pay attention and read reviews and know what you are getting you will be fine.

Booger says

You stay in Scottsdale. Phoenix proper is kind of trashy. Everything else is a Del Webb type community with geezers. I like AZ, but Phoenix itself is pretty much the blandest city I've been to. Not dangerous, but feels like one giant average suburb everywhere. Not really a destination unless you golf or have a conference there. And again, most of that is in Scottsdale. Or you go to ASU to fuck college chicks.

zzyzzx says

SUDDENLY!!!!

Eric Holder says

zzyzzx says

SUDDENLY!!!!

Lol. Fuck California. I'm sure the license "number" is free? I don't know how you guys put up with it. You always have been able to rent your house out for whatever terms forever until a service was started and the Karens bitched about a few parties next door. Government overreach to the max.

Kick the party people out, or arrest them. Don't punish all the responsible people.

WookieMan says

Kick the party people out, or arrest them.

You still think that there is such a thing as law enforcement?

https://www.reddit.com/r/AirBnB/comments/11wehgc/winter_storm_2023_catastrophe/

Winter Storm 2023 Catastrophe

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/airbnb-listings-permits-quebec-government-1.6789949

All unauthorized Airbnb listings in Quebec to be removed from app, company says

A week after a deadly fire ravaged a building in Old Montreal that included units available for rent on Airbnb, the company says it plans to remove all Quebec listings that have not been authorized by the provincial government.

Four deaths have been confirmed following the fire. Three other people are missing.

The fire renewed concerns about the proliferation of short-term rentals that are not registered with the Quebec government and are, therefore, illegal.

There have been calls for the province and the city of Montreal to ramp up efforts to crack down on illegal short-term rentals, given the possibility that many of them present safety hazards that go unchecked.

On Friday, Airbnb spokesperson Mattie Zazueta said the company sent a letter to Quebec's tourism minister informing her of its plan to "remove existing listings" without a permit.

Doing so could mean wiping out the vast majority of Quebec listings on Airbnb.

In Montreal, for example, more than 90 per cent of short-term rental units listed on Airbnb are not authorized, according to an independent watchdog group, Inside Airbnb.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-06-15/airbnb-spends-millions-making-nightmares-at-live-anywhere-rentals-go-away

Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

When things go horribly wrong during a stay, the company’s secretive safety team jumps in to soothe guests and hosts, help families—and prevent PR disasters.

The first-floor apartment on West 37th Street, a few blocks south of Times Square, was popular with tourists—so popular that a set of keys was left at the counter of a nearby bodega for Airbnb renters to pick up. That’s where a 29-year-old Australian woman and a group of her friends retrieved them, no identification needed, when they arrived in Manhattan to celebrate New Year’s Eve in 2015. The apartment had been advertised on Airbnb even though most short-term rentals are illegal in New York. The city, prodded by powerful hotel unions, was at war with the company, which was listing thousands of apartments in the five boroughs despite some of the strictest regulations in the country.

Soon after ringing in the new year, the woman left her friends at the bar where they’d been celebrating and returned to the apartment on her own. She didn’t notice anything amiss or see the man standing in the shadows as she walked into the bathroom. By the time she realized she wasn’t alone, the blade of a kitchen knife was pointing down at her. The stranger grabbed her, shoved her onto a bed, and raped her. Drunken revelers were wandering the streets outside, but the woman was too scared to scream.

The attacker fled with her phone, but she managed to reach her friends with an iPad, and they ran into the street to find a police officer. The cops were already in the apartment an hour or so later when the man returned and peered into the doorway. They caught him and emptied his backpack, pulling out three incriminating items: a knife, one of the woman’s earrings, and a set of keys to the apartment.

That morning a call came in for Nick Shapiro. A former deputy chief of staff at the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Council adviser in the Obama White House, Shapiro was two weeks into a new job as a crisis manager at Airbnb Inc. “I remember thinking I was right back in the thick of it,” he recalls. “This brought me back to feelings of confronting truly horrific matters at Langley and in the situation room at the White House.”

Shapiro notified other Airbnb executives, including Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky. Meanwhile safety agents from the company’s elite trust-and-safety team sprang into action. They relocated the woman to a hotel, paid for her mother to fly in from Australia, flew them both home, and offered to cover any health or counseling costs.

The duplicate keys posed a particular problem for the company and a mystery for investigators. How had the man gotten them? Airbnb doesn’t have a policy for how hosts exchange keys with guests, and its reputation for safety, and possibly its legal liability, hinged on the answer. Shapiro (who’s since left the company) helped coordinate an investigation into the matter.

A week later, a staff member was sent to court to see if Airbnb was mentioned during a proceeding. It wasn’t. The local media didn’t report on the crime either, despite the lurid details, and the company wanted to keep it that way. The story remained unreported until now, in no small part because two years after the assault Airbnb wrote the woman a check for $7 million, one of the biggest payouts the company has ever made. In exchange she signed an agreement not to talk about the settlement “or imply responsibility or liability” on the part of Airbnb or the host.

Details of the crime, the company’s response, and the settlement were reconstructed from police and court records and confidential documents, as well as from interviews with people familiar with the case. The woman, whose name was redacted in court documents and who asked through her lawyer not to be identified, declined to comment. So did her lawyer. Ben Breit, an Airbnb spokesman, says that the company doesn’t have the power to keep stories out of the media and that, despite the wording of the settlement agreement, the woman “is able to discuss whether she holds anyone responsible.” He adds that Airbnb’s goal following the incident was to support the survivor of a “horrific attack” and that local political issues had nothing to do with its response.

The way Airbnb has handled crimes such as the New York attack, which occurred during a bitter regulatory fight, shows how critical the safety team has been to the company’s growth. Airbnb’s business model rests on the idea that strangers can trust one another. If that premise is undermined, it can mean fewer users and more lawsuits, not to mention tighter regulation.

For all its importance, the safety team remains shrouded in secrecy. Insiders call it the “black box.” But eight former members and 45 other current and former Airbnb employees familiar with the team’s role, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of breaching confidentiality agreements, provided a rare glimpse into its operations and internal struggles. The job, former team members say, is a nerve-wracking one, balancing the often conflicting interests of guests, hosts, and the company. “I had situations where I had to get off the phone and go cry,” a former agent recalls. “That’s all you can do.”

I found one type of AbnB which works fine, because the setup is not that different from a hotel - a condo or appartment in a timeshare building. There is always somebody to let you in, fix a clogged toilet, etc. No "key left at a corner bodega" BS.

https://youtu.be/XB7aiFiuOY8

Story about Airbnb squatter.

Vrbo is decent, or at least better than air bnb.

mell says

Vrbo is decent, or at least better than air bnb.

Both are fine. The key is to take your time and really read every review. We've never had an issue with either service on the renting side. Also once you get any contract read every letter on it. The biggest horror stories are renting 6+ months out and the owner sells the place and doesn't communicate that. I've never stayed in one that I'd consider overly dirty or anything like that. There will be flaws with any property including hotels, so you have to set the bar appropriately in any situation.

Now if you book at the Four Seasons or a Ritz they have set the bar at a certain level. You should expect excellent conditions and service for the price. You can still get a 5 star experience at a VRBO or AirBnb, I just go in with a 3 start expectations and most time get 4 and sometimes 5 with certain rentals.

I've actually had good success with Turo for renting cars which is basically the same concept. Got nicer cars with more miles on them for 20-30% less than the major rental car companies. Had a BMW convertible out in AZ late January for $200 for 5 days. Pickup and drop at the airport garage which is closer than the rental car location.

There's always risk with this sharing industry type shit, but knock on wood I've had good luck. Key is always have a back up plan. Trip insurance on anything above $1k+ is a must for us now. That way if you have to scramble if a vacation rental screwed you, hotels and other shit could be covered and you can at least hopefully enjoy the trip or cancel. First time we bought it about 10 years ago used it. Saved us $7k for a $150 policy. Or we miss my BIL's funeral and likely have family shame forever. Fucking dumb ass (suicide). Although we rebooked that trip substantially cheaper. So loss/win/win.

zzyzzx says

LOL my interloper buddy is going to Columbia. He's booking two different rooms from Airbnb and a room with Selinas. He likes having a room on different locations at his destinations. He told me when he leaves an AirBnb, he takes the sheets off the bed, the pillows out of the pillowcases and the towels from the bathroom and puts them by the door. "All they got to do is make the bed, they love me."

To which I told him, now you're creating a situation where they will expect that out of everyone.

Then I see this meme.