Dear Tourists

[Ben551]

I fell across this image today and felt compelled to share it.  

At first glance I thought “if only it were that easy to find the source of all Neighbourhood issues.” Whilst I can’t fault some of the logic, I find it wishful thinking to asssume that getting rid of Airbnb’s is the “one lever to cure it all”, yet that’s how the letter came across to my eyes. But I know next to nothing about the city this was written for.

And I haven’t had enough tea yet this morning 🙂

What do other hosts think about this? Any hosts from Lisbon about?

~ Ben

[Gordon0]

Some would have you believe Airbnb (and similar) is the Antichrist. I don't buy it. Of course, it's far worse in cities like New York, where you can often be hassled by residents.  

[Ann72]

Gordon (don't know why your name isn't showing up on the list, sorry about that)

It's prohibited in many New York buildings (not saying whether that's a good thing or a bad thing), so if you're hassled by residents, that's probably why.  I mean, let's say you own a condo in a building where Airbnb is prohibited.  And you follow the law while your next-door neighbor is having STR guests in and out all the time.  Wouldn't you find that super-annoying?  I would.  I wouldn't hassle the guests, though. 

I think the management of my building haunts Airbnb all the time to see if anyone is listing, because once or twice a year we get a notice reminding us that it's prohibited.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Ben551tenants are always unhappy, they always want to rent a great place in a great location for cheap. Zagreb is full of short and long term rentals in all parts of the city but not everyone can afford those in a city center. It's a matter of offer and demand.

Many apartments ,specially those outside the center, are going back to long term lease due to the overkill of STRs in Zagreb.

Btw , here in Zagreb entire buildings were bought, renovated and turned to hostels and hotels so private Airbnb hosts are not only one to blame.

[Rachel-And-Ethan0]

The hand written portion certainly reflects my experience hosting. Our guests stay provides income for us and our subcontractors: cleaner, laundryman, car service, check-in agent.  And they frequent all kinds of local businesses. One recent guest bought jewellery with money saved not staying in hotel. So the economic benefits are wide ranging but unfortunately difficult to quantify to local authorities.

[Sarah977]

It's quite obvious to me that STRs in what are entire homes or apartments do definitely contribute to a housing crisis for locals. Private rooms in a home where a host lives, entire cabin, cottage STRs on a host's property, or occasional renting of an entire place where the host normally lives, but is temporarily out-of-town, or a vacation home that the host and their family and friends also use sometimes, don't contribute to the housing crisis, as those places wouldn't be rented out long-term to locals anyway.

But there's another factor to consider for those entire place listings, which is why the hosts' decided to STR them in the first place, which has nothing to do with just wanting to earn more money. Landlord/tenant laws in many places are so heavily weighted in favor of the tenant that I know people who decided to STR because they had had nightmare experiences of long-term lease renters who didn't pay the rent, were trashing the place, etc, and the landlords had a terrible time getting them evicted, sometimes having to wait months with no rent coming in, while the process ground along in tortoise fashion. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

bravo @Sarah977 , same thing here, long term tenants are risky, specially families with kids

[Yulianna0]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 Unfortunately we had a terrible experience of long term rental for family with kids. One who had pass it once will never return to do it again. No money for months and home in terrible condition, with black mold! Current legislation is trying to protect tenants but in fact it works against them. Landlords are trying to protect themselves asking for permanent work contracts, 2-3 month pre-payed, aval... And one month of rent for agency... Do many people are able to rent with such conditions? There are many empty flats here. But it is not the fault of STR for sure.

[Ben551]

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@Sarah977 wrote:

It's quite obvious to me that STRs in what are entire homes or apartments do definitely contribute to a housing crisis for locals. Private rooms in a home where a host lives, entire cabin, cottage STRs on a host's property, or occasional renting of an entire place where the host normally lives, but is temporarily out-of-town, or a vacation home that the host and their family and friends also use sometimes, don't contribute to the housing crisis, as those places wouldn't be rented out long-term to locals anyway.

But there's another factor to consider for those entire place listings, which is why the hosts' decided to STR them in the first place, which has nothing to do with just wanting to earn more money. Landlord/tenant laws in many places are so heavily weighted in favor of the tenant that I know people who decided to STR because they had had nightmare experiences of long-term lease renters who didn't pay the rent, were trashing the place, etc, and the landlords had a terrible time getting them evicted, sometimes having to wait months with no rent coming in, while the process ground along in tortoise fashion. 

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Apologies, for some reason I can’t tag you... but I can quote you... weird!

Wanted to say there are many of the same stories in NZ about long term rentals. Like most countries, the laws entirely favour the tenants and ‘due process’ for eviction is painfully slow, and expensive. There are also horror stories about landlords charging $700 per week in Auckland for damp, leaky homes full of mould and rotten carpet (they pop up in the news and on Fair Go now every few months). So laws have changed around these exceptional issues though, which has the effect of making things tough for all landlords, even those doing the right thing...

I also agree re: part of your home. Not everyone would choose LTR if STR options were taken away. That housing stock would just leave the market entirely, especially in my case.

The thing is, if the law changed tomorrow in my city to disallow STR, I would not choose long term rental or selling up and downsizing. I don’t know if I’ve said this before on the forum, but the reason we renovated our “downstairs” is because my mother in law is getting on in years and we expected she may come to live with us in (say) 4-5 years... maybe less, maybe more... she has ups and downs. Anyway, we wanted her to have her own self contained space. She comes to stay for 2-week blocks at the moment and we block off the Airbnb for her.

So long term rental or selling up and downsizing (the two things the government would most like to happen) wouldn’t happen in our case. We’d just take the Airbnb off the market and keep it empty for mother in law.

[Sarah977]

@Ben551  Same here- I started Airbnbing my guest room because it just sat empty most of the year. There is no way I would have a full-time roommate and it's great to be able to block off dates when I do have family and friends come to visit.

If I stopped Airbnb hosting, it would just go back to being an empty room most of the time, and/or I'd find ways to STR it privately.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Ben551@Sarah977  we bought this apartment for STR, if we would quit Airbnb we would sell it.

[Paul154]

Airbnb is the fault for everything.

1.  Population growth.

2. Popularity of living in city centers.

3. Lack of services in Suburbs.

4. Regulations suppressing housing developments and supply in highly desirable neighborhoods.

5. Regulations which give so many rights to renters, that no rational people want to rent out long-term.

On top of it, we pay local people good money for maintenance and services!

[Kath9]

@Ben551, thanks for sharing. As usual, I agree with @Sarah977 100%. The renting out of entire homes and apartments is absolutely causing a housing crisis worldwide - there is plenty of evidence of this. Personally, I strongly object to people buying up or renting properties to let out on Airbnb. You look at some hosts and they have, like, 150 listings! This IS creating a housing shortage for locals and even homelessness  in some areas. I do believe it's different renting out a room in your home (for example, I wouldn't rent mine out long term as I want it to be available for family and friends who visit) or for people renting out their home short-term when they're.

However, I also think the hotel industry (just like the taxi industry) is crying 'poor me' at the moment, which in many ways is understandable, but also in some ways misses the point. We are ALL entitled to make a living, not just hotels. I had a rather heated 'debate' with a local bed and breakfast owner in my town who was literally yelling and pointing his finger at me in the middle of a pub, telling me that I, personally, was ruining his business and that I don't pay taxes like he does. I calmly pointed out to him that a) I do declare all my Airbnb income and pay tax on it, b) I am entitled to make a living just like he is and c) I attract a completely different market to him because our prices are so vastly different.

I also think the point that hotels and the tourist industry miss is that Airbnb actually INCREASES tourism and BOOSTS local economies. This is because people who previously couldn't afford the cost of hotel room and didn't wish to stay in backpackers now have options to travel (as accommodation is a major portion of travel costs). Airbnb has opened up tourism for many, many people, as well as providing an income for people like us. It's not going away, as much as hotels might want it to.

However, more and more local councils are cracking down on people renting out whole apartments and homes for ST accommodation, which I happen to agree with. The increasing commercialisation of Airbnb is a problem - in many cases now it's no different to staying in a hotel -  and personally I would love to see it go back to its original spirit of home sharing and authentic cultural exchange.

[Ben551]

Very well said @Kath9 ! I particularly like your point around the commercial / hotel standard Airbnb.

I noticed there is a hotel in Otago New Zealand that has listed each individual room on Airbnb... this is so confusing. My wife and I were booking a birthday trip (in a couple of weeks) and wanted to visit Fiordland... we both said “lets stay in an Airbnb!” We were excited at the prospect.

So imagine our confusion and disappointment when we had to scroll through 3 pages of listings that were all “room 10, room 8, room 20... room 32...” of a hotel before we could get to what we would call a “proper Airbnb” in someone’s home... 

[Helen3]

I think @Ben551 

It's absolutely fair enough for local communities to make their feelings known about the impact STRs are having on major cities like Lisbon and tourist areas.

There are large scale property management companies that buy up multiple properties and some private owners that can own 10,20, 30 or more properties pushing prices up and meaning there is less and less rented accommodation available for local communities.

Key workers such as nurses, teachers, emergency services workers and those who work in minimum wage or low income jobs  cleaners, in shops, in our public transport systems and in hospitality can't afford to live in the citieis they work in, and in many cases grew up in,  because a lack of rented property and because it is impossible to afford a mortgage.

What will all those Airbnb guests in Lisbon do when there is no-one to drive their trams , serve them a coffee, cook them a meal in that nice local restaurant or clean their Airbnb 🙂

Is this all down to Airbnb?  of course not, but the development of the STR market has had a huge impact on areas such as Lisbon and we need to come up with solutions which are fair for all. Not just for the individuals or companies involved in STRs.