Airbnb-style Hosting is Dead in Japan by July 2018

[Kansai0]

This is going to be a bit of a rant. However, it's also going to state the facts as to why airbnb-style hosting in Japan is going the way of the dodo by the start of July 2018. As Airbnb hosts for nearly six years—who at our peak once hosted a dozen-properties throughout Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara—we do not feel the truth about the Japan situation is being stated by any parties (be it Airbnb-style businesses, the Japan tourist bureau, or any source we have found in the media). You might see this reposted in lots of boards where we feel the reality of the situation is not being reported.

The Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow: the license (a.k.a. unobtainium)

The biggest reason why the new nationwide law and local regulations are set to snuff out the home-sharing industry: the license.

We have found on a number of Airbnb boards, news sites, and travel sites, where the following style of statement or advice is given, "just get your license, and you will be fine" or "use a lawyer, or agency, or magic unicorn, to help with the application process, and you are all set."

It's all complete nonsense; a carrot-in-front-of-a-donkey suggestion. "Just get your license" is meaningless if the steps to obtaining that license are crafted in such a way that no individual outside of being an actual hotelier, is ever going to qualify.

Once again, we had properties in Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara. We began taking steps to get all of our listings under code, way back when we first heard of the law even being discussed (early 2017). The result? 18-months on from our heyday of controlling a dozen-properties, we are down to 0-properties, ZERO! That even includes two free-standing houses we owned in Kyoto and Nara. Why? The license is nearly impossible to get. Here are a few of the main reasons for us being unable to continue hosting:

2017 KYOTO HOME #1: "The house must have property-attached parking."
Seriously? In JAPAN? With so many houses packed into limited land space, how many of them have property-attached parking? Not ours, property lost.

2017 KYOTO HOME #2: "Your house (a rental where we were given permission to use as an airbnb) can be licensed, after the necessary upgrades and alterations are made. Those alterations will cost approximately $12,000 USD (loft-space was not allowed, and had to be walled-up, for example); you are not allowed to host guests while the property is under license application (5-month dead zone); and you will still be paying rent and utilities on the place."
No-brainer, property lost.

P.S. on Kyoto, too:
"For properties located in exclusive residential zones, hosts can only provide accommodation for a maximum of 60 days per year and only during the off-season winter months from January 15 to March 15."

2017 OSAKA HOME #1: "A licensed bnb home (built on the third and fourth floor of a building with a restaurant on the ground flood, and office space on the second floor) cannot be on the 3rd and 4th floor, for fire-safety reasons."
Property lost.

2017 Various OSAKA APARTMENTS: "It doesn't matter if the owner is cool with it. It doesn't matter if the building management was once cool with it; they aren't now."
Properties lost.

2018 OUR OWN NARA HOME. Our home of residence. Where it all began. The OG of home-sharing and the one where we used MULTIPLE lawyers and agents to try and find a way to get licensed:
"You can NOT license this home unless you (a.) live onsight 24-7, or (b.) have a full-time manager within 10 minutes of the property."

We left this for the last example because it is both the literal (it's the last property we had any hope of getting licensed) and figurative final nail in our coffin as airbnb hosts. It is no longer financially feasible to try "home-sharing" when a person is now either chained to their property as a hotel-operator or has to pay an exorbitant rate to a management company. By the way, we were not even given that last option (get fleeced by a management company) since there isn't one, yet, in all of Nara-prefecture.

CUT TO THE CHASE
We are still holding on to the thinnest strand of hope that we may, one day, be able to license our home for use as an airbnb that TURNS A PROFIT like the good ol' days of 2016. However, we don't see any likely way of that happening. The only realistic possibility is that the blowback from thousands of properties being delisted in mid-June 2018, will create a delay in enforcing the registration number requirement; but that would only be a delay in the inevitable.

Airbnb-style business in Japan—like it used to be when it was a great way for individuals to make a good second-income—is well and truly dead. Any future model will favor the hotel industry, management agencies, and other big businesses. Once again, the little-guy is being shown the door.

"But (Airbnb) is also confident the number of listings will bounce back and eventually exceed the current level because Japan still has a great deal of potential to expand, said country manager Yasuyuki Tanabe.
'We will have clear rules for home lodging, which will encourage more people to list their properties,' Tanabe said."

"We can still turn this thing around!" said Captain Edward John Smith, just before the Titanic slipped beneath the cold Atlantic waves.

[Inna22]

@Kansai0 I wish Airbnb provided support-even if at a fee- for something like that. Situation in Chicago is also very difficult to navigate

[Kansai0]

UPDATE 5/27/2018
To further reinforce the complete futility of trying to get licensed, we were informed by one of our real estate agent/advisers in Kyoto (because we continue to try and find a way to keep going as hosts) that there have been 1800+ applications for a license, but only SIX have been approved.

[Rickie1]

Hi Bob&Lily, I actually managed to get my registration numbers after considerable time and effort. I now have to confirm my country of residence as Japan. They are asking for a Japan Passport or Drivers licence. I have a permanent residence card, My number (tax), Japan address and phone number but airbnb is refusing to allow me to relist because their system does not have the facility for Japan Permanent Residence as an ID type. So I am on hold and all they will tell me is that it takes considerable time with no ETA. 
Do you by chance have any contact details for Tanabe? Or similar? 
I have tried everything from Twitter to support to FB but no response.

Any help/advice appreciated.

John

---

@Kansai0 wrote:

UPDATE 5/27/2018
To further reinforce the complete futility of trying to get licensed, we were informed by one of our real estate agent/advisers in Kyoto (because we continue to try and find a way to keep going as hosts) that there have been 1800+ applications for a license, but only SIX have been approved.

---

[Kansai0]

Hello, John.

Apologies, but we do not have any additional contact information beyond Airbnb's standard contact channels:
【Airbnbサポートセンター連絡先】
日本語対応/日本時間午前8時～午後9時（年中無休）
●国内より　0800-100-1008 (無料)
●海外より　+81 345800999（有料)
英語対応（24時間）/ +1-855-424-7262
＜メールによるお問い合わせ＞
www.airbnb.jp/help/contact_us

No way to list with a permanent residence card? The stupid just doesn't stop with this, does it?  If you have already had direct contact with Airbnb support, I do not know of any other shortcut to resolving this through other channels.

Best of luck.

Bob

[Kansai0]

UPDATE 6/1/2018

Airbnb (and other similar home-sharing websites) were instructed to enforce immediately the registration number requirement, and delist all properties that had not input a license number. We (along with the thousands of other delisted property owners) received an email that essentially said:

"In accordance with the housing accommodation business law, in order to do the hosting it is necessary to post permission information such as a registration number or permission of the ryokan business etc. on the listing page. Currently, since this information is not entered on your listing page, the listing has been removed ... in accordance with a notification from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport as of June 1, 2018."

The result? As of this posting date:
✓ Our little city of Nara now lists only 139 properties (down from 500+ at its peak).

✓ Kyoto and Osaka (which had over 10,000 listings just a week ago) now shows 2000+ listings available in each city.

✓ The majority of listings seem to be from hostels and guest houses; places that have registered hotelier licenses, and are therefore immune to the homesharing/minpaku laws and regulations that have knocked everyone else out of the box. It would be interesting to know how many licensed listings are individual private homeowners/renters who went through the process of getting the minpaku license, and are not affiliated with a group or agency or other hostel/guest house-type business.

Anyway, as thought, we are dead in the water as hosts. Thanks for five great years of hosting adventures Airbnb; it was great while it lasted.

[Kelly144]

I am travelling to Japan in August, and have two stays during this time booked via airbnb. I am concerned there will be issues on arrival but my host says bookings taken prior to July 18 will still be allowed to be honored. Do you know if this is correct? 

[Kansai0]

To Kelly in Hobart

"my host says bookings taken prior to July 18 will still be allowed to be honored. "

I cannot judge that to be right or wrong on the host's part. Yes, we have a few bookings that were made before we were delisted, and we will absolutely honor those. However, depending on the case-by-case situation in each city and especially each listing's particular situation, it is impossible to know what might happen.

When we first started losing properties in mid-2017, we had a few bookings that we were dead-set on honoring. We even said as much to the Kyoto government officials who were telling us to cease-and-desist. Even though we had immediately taken our listing down, we were warned that if the neighbors suspected any additional Airbnb guests had checked in the neighbors could contact the government and they had the option of fining us (best case) or straight up suing us. One particular neighbor (who had brought our listing to the government's attention in the first place) was practically perched at their window, waiting to drop the hammer on us, so we ended up having to cancel those reservations.

In MOST of our cases with all of our properties, once we stopped listing the property we had no further issue with honoring the remaining reservations. We had always been on good terms in most of the neighborhoods where we had listings, and even had a few that worked for us as cleaners and helped keep an eye on the places.

So that is a very grey answer, right? But it's the most truthful. I think all hosts want to earn the money they have worked for to get those bookings. They do not want to have to cancel anything, but when the knock comes at the door and officials are standing there threatening legal proceedings then it really isn't in the hosts's hands anymore.

We hope that you are able to complete your journey to Japan without a hitch.

[Simone431]

So the remaining hosts in Tokyo etc all have licences? How do I check before booking? 

[Dominic68]

Can the travel voucher be transferred? If so, I can help you. email [email hidden for safety reasons in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

[Jess78]

HI (still having trouble tagging too),

Holy cow, your experience should be a good lesson to everyone in every community. That if they want to, local, state, and national governments could shut us down fairly easily with various loophols at their disposal. My town shut down Uber from the beginning up until this year -- 10 years?

Anyone who makes their living off this kind of thing absolutely needs to stay up to date on any and all meetings, discussions, and concerns and participate in those discussions happening in their place of residence, as the rug could potentially be pulled out from under any one of us any day.

I'm very sad indeed to hear this about Japan -- for hosts and travellers. Surely there could have been middle ground met to ensure the safety and quality for travellers, but someone at the top probably has a huge stake in the corporate hotel industry I guess.

Question: What does the law say about how long a short term rental actually is? For instance, could you still list on academic sabbatical sites, month-long stays and the like? What is the minimum to be considered something different all together? Perhaps there is some kind of loophole there? I'm sure you've thought all these things through already, but I am just curious for my self.

Maybe with the collective mind here, lots of smart and savvy people from all over the world... maybe just maybe there is a loophole!!!!???????

I wish you guys all the best.

Jess

[Kansai0]

And we (all airbnb delisted hosts in Japan) are starting to get an ugly answer to the question of, "what happens to those bookings that were taken BEFORE the cutoff date."

We only had a few more bookings that were made months ago, and we figured they would be allowed to stand and that would be that. Nope! Airbnb has been forced to cancel those bookings, and give the guests travel vouchers for booking into another place.

Our last remaining reservations were simply cancelled by Airbnb, and an email automatically issued that said a lot, but the relevant bit said:

"According to the notification, the host who does not have a notification number or other reasonable reason (permission, etc.) for hosting is notified that guest acceptance is not permitted even if it is already a confirmed reservation."

We always thought Japan would not mess with Airbnb-style sharing until after the 2019 Rugby World Cup or the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Wrong again. They have taken quite the opposite approach in slashing and burning it all down now, with the belief that they will still have time to come up with something better for the accommodation shortage before those big dates. That will probably be true, but it won't involve common airbnbers like ourselves.

Cheers and happy travels to you all.

[Kansai0]

June 8, 2018 It's done

Excerpt from a Fortune article, but there are dozens more out there that say the same thing:

But, the stringent Japanese policies seem to have affected Airbnb immensely. According to a report by the Nikkei Asian Review, Airbnb has been forced to remove 80% of Japanese listings in the past few months alone — plummeting from 62,000 listings to 13,800 since spring.

“While this is a difficult time for our hosts and guests, we believe the new rules will ultimately be a positive change for Airbnb and our Japan community,” said Airbnb. “There will undoubtedly be a period of adjustment, but ultimately, clear rules and regulations for home sharing will make our community in Japan bigger and stronger.”

Still we continue to laugh at the absurd and blatantly false statements being put out by Airbnb PR. There is no more "community" in Japan, Airbnb. These rules and regulations were designed to destroy the home-sharing market, and they have done exactly that.

Airbnb will likely be back bigger and stronger, working with licensed hoteliers, hostels, guest houses, and business groups that either manage or control dozens of listings. It's a huge business that will change and adapt, and demand is still there and growing. However, the original idea and foundation of Airbnb that we bought and invested into in 2012 (a community of individuals willing to offer space in their homes to host guests from all round the world) is no more, and it is never coming back; but "Airbnb's business community" probably doesn't sound as homey. 

[Anthony444]

Hi Bob and Lily,

I read all of your posts.  Thank you for taking the time to write all of them.  Very invaluable.  And, I'm quite sorry that you've seen a once lucrative business of home-sharing get crushed.  ;-(

I, myself, lived in Japan for 6 years (1989 - 1995) and know a lot of the history about how the Japanese government stifles competition.  So, I have little doubt that you know what you're talking about, and that what you conclude is happening and will certainly happen, will actually happen.  ;-(

Given that I have 4 reservations with Airbnb for travel in Japan starting from mid-July, it's not a comforting thought . . . but at least knowing is better than not knowing.  For that, I thank you so much!

Cheers,

Anthony

[Dimitri41]

Bob and Lily

Yes Many thanks for sharing your story 

and I have 3 boys and a wanted to airbnb my house during summer so we can get kids out of Tokyo jungles but now it looks like impossible, you may be right.

I wanted to start the licening Minpaku to be able to fund my trips during this summer

but My house has a loft and is not permited. So licence would not work unless we wall it but we just cant afford any of that...

So now I am offering my place to guest directly. And guest what you have to loose?

Just stay with hosts without licence, why are you so worried now?

We hosts are here and we will keep on lookings for guests, so come and stay with us.

https://www.facebook.com/exAirBNBtokyohost/