Government consultation announced on Friday

[Sebastian29]

This is the text of a message I have sent to Catherine Powell Head of Hosting in San Francisco this evening :

On Friday, the British government announced a consultation on

"Developing a tourist accommodation registration scheme in England". 

It's late so I won't say much now but this is huge.

I've seen nothing yet from Airbnb in London so I wonder whether you are aware of it yet.

Two things need to happen right away. First, we need to mobilise hosts in England to respond as a matter of urgency and second, we need to make sure that Airbnb's response is drawn up in close consultation with hosts.  The last time this happened Airbnb London sold the Government the ninety night rule as a way of protecting their interests with no consultation with hosts.

I don't know who you have in England at the moment but you're going to need someone who really knows their stuff to take a lead on this and a good team who understand and have experience of grassroots community activism.

You can impose all the party bans you like (and I'm glad you have) but none of that alters the perception in Whitehall of Airbnb as being the facilitator of rampaging hoardes of young women ruining the lives of nice law abiding neighbours.

They have decided in Government that "something must be done" and that "something" is that they will seek to regulate us out of existence and hand over our share of the market to their hotelier chums in The City and on Wall St.

The consultation document is here :

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/developing-a-tourist-accommodation-registration-scheme-i...

Yrs,

Sebastian Sandys

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And so.....

I shall host a Zoom meeting for hosts in London early next week. And after that one for hosts in other parts of England. We need to be swift, focussed and effective in our response to this if we are to survive.

Indicate below if you would like to join and share with any host chats or groups you are part of.

[Anonymous]

@Sebastian29    

"rampaging hoardes (sic) of young women ruining the lives of nice law abiding neighbours."

Of all the arguments I've heard over the years in favor of restricting Airbnb, not a single one of them singled out female groups as the main reason lives have been allegedly ruined. Is this a Daily Mail thing?

[Sebastian29]

It’s more the Telegraph and Tory councillors. As well as misogyny the Telegraph have always been fond of snobbery and class based elitism.

If you’ve been presented at court and had your coming out ball in a privately owned stately home then you do tend to look down on hen parties and baby showers.

[Anonymous]

@Sebastian29  Ha! I guess this has been an interesting day for Tories. But OK, after a few British hosts mentioned the Telegraph as a source of woe, I did have a look at their Airbnb tab. Pretty critical, but I'm still not seeing any comment about groups of women specifically. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/airbnb/

[Helen3]

When the 90 day rule for STR was rightly introduced in London @Sebastian29  airbnb did invest in a massive lobbying campaign against a its introduction.

I'm not against the introduction of licensing here - it's long overdue .

but I agree we need a couple-ordinated response from STR hosts on this matter .