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Comment by gloves | Hacker News Reader

I don't necessarily see the average user of AirBnB losing out in this situation (happy to be corrected) - but more houses and options seem like a good thing.

I think the big losers here, outside of hotels, are renters. As someone who is trying to rent/buy in popular areas of the country (Cambridge, UK), I can see how houses will no longer come up for rent - which sucks, as the article points out.

I guess there could (hopefully) be a point where there are so many professionally rented homes that it no longer represents such an attractive proposition and the first movers enjoying these fat years of high revenues eventually lose out.

Either that, or Airbnb will become the new way to rent, who knows...

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As someone who has literally lived in AirBnB apartments for a bit over a year now, these situations tend to work out well for me. Most of my stays have been with people who manage a number of apartments on AirBnB to make their living, whether via owning the building, or, more often, by subletting a bunch if apartments (legally or illegally).

Making no comment on the effect of such operations on housing costs or other such matters, AirBnB, like Uber, has succeeded by making a uniquely good user experience, even as they flout regulations and the law in general.

Well, good for you. Maybe not so good for the neighbors in those apartments. They moved in not expecting a revolving door of strangers and late-night partiers. There's rules for zoning things, for a reason.

Definitely true, although I suspect the actual frequency of such late-night partiers and other terrible guests is exaggerated.

A conversation-starter I like to use on my hosts is to ask about their bad experiences with tenants, and most of them tend to have fairly boring ones, usually about some hard-to-please guest or another. I've yet to hear of one of the drug-fuelled late-night orgies that discussions on AirBnB seem to hold as commonplace, even from hosts who have been renting dozens of apartments for years.

Then again, I do tend to stay at apartments that are available monthly, which may make a difference.

Why is it assumed that all Airbnb guests by definition must be late night partiers, noisy and disruptive to the neighborhood? Seems like those types of comments are made by parties that have a vested interest against Airbnb in particular. I'll add my own one-point statistic: I rent an Airbnb while also renting out my house on Airbnb in another city. My neighbors where I rent out have not problems with my Airbnb guests, but ironically didn't like the folks that rented my house via the traditional broker/lease setup. In the end, it's just a marketplace for housing stock available to lease, both short term and long term. The traditional way of filling tenancy is seriously broken, with brokers taking a high up-front charge with no follow on service or help to landlords. Just look at NYC with their hate towards Airbnb. The rental market in that city is atrocious (exorbitant broker fees for tenants, poor presentation, shady brokers, etc etc)

No assumption by me. But what's the odds that none of them are? Business travelers - maybe not. But vacationers are there for that intended purpose, right? And at least some of them will be annoying all-night partiers with no interest in pacifying neighbors they've never met and will never see again.

Either that, or Airbnb will become the new way to rent, who knows...

Not sure if they'd want to get into that, but it would be a huge new market. It's also a market that might benefit from some "intermediation", in the interests of information symmetry and fairness.

Agreed. They kind of have the platform - moving from a couple of night rental to a slightly longer term (weekly, monthly terms) potentially couldn't be too much of stretch should they want to go there.

But goodness me, the rental market does need an overhaul!

It is quite possible to find medium-term accomodation on AirBnB, priced by the month. It seems that everything is there but compliance with housing and tenancy laws, which are likely even more complex than the hotel regulations they prefer to ignore.

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