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Comment by poisonarena | Hacker News Reader

I understand all the ramifications in certain cities where the housing prices are getting effected by airbnb, but I think in this case it is just the Hotels strong arming because they were losing business and the Olympics are coming.

I am a budget traveler and low income remote worker and I really am glad I got to slide in before airbnb got shafted. It's a shame that I now have to choose between hostels and overpriced hotels, when I prefer the AirBnB experience. I met friends my age, got to see a side of Japan outside of tourist spots, and learned what it's like to just live in a normal house here without some exchange program or school. Without AirBnB I would not have been able to visit this unique country! RIP!

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I've got mixed feelings returning from Japan. My best and worst stays were both AirBnB's. The best, which is still listed, came from a host who owned the place and very thoughtfully went out of her way to share local things to do. The worst was run by a nebulous "company" that gave us half the rooms promised, at an apartment where residents/management had put up "Foreigners cause crimes, please call the police immediately." signs. It turns out that company had double-booked units in that building using another platform and brazenly gave us another spare unit. This kind of gold rush to capitalize on Japan's tourism boom may indeed need some thoughtful regulation.

Mind sharing the link to the good one? I'm sure they're jam-packed right now if they're one of the 20% still available, but would be good to know for future reference.

A lot of people don't notice it, but Japanese apartments and houses have paper-thin walls with no insulation. People may think they're being quiet because they don't hear the person next door (since people generally live here knowing that they should avoid being noisy). But no, blasting music from your phone speakers, stomping around in your boots, throwing your bag on the floor, and sparking up a blunt is shit everyone hears. Yet try politely telling someone they're being a little loud and they get pissed because there's no way you heard their 2AM phone argument while they're drunk and blazed as fuck.

If the apartment next to me ended up being an airbnb spot here in Japan, I'd do whatever I could to either get the renter evicted or move out. I have too much experience with people having zero self-awareness when they come to Japan, and I couldn't possibly deal with having new people coming in twice a week and trying to explain that yes, you are indeed noisy as fuck, and yes, people actually don't party 24/7 in this country because some people do work.

Yea but the parent post said they're bummed because the people you described ruined it for him/her.

I too slipped in before the crack down. Got a rustic place in Kyoto. It was definitely no-frills but as you say, gave you a sense of really living in Japan.

When you have a family of five, hotels add up fast (it was hard even finding a hotel room that would allow 4, forget 5).

Still, there are always ryokan. Not quite the same as "living native" but somewhere in between that and the expensive Western hotel.

Why not just comply with the laws? I have a friend who did this, but in tourist-y cities this was turning into situations where a person would rent out 10 apartments at $2k/mo and rent them on at $300 a night.

A great business, but if you live in a block with constant travellers then I guess it can get super annoying fast.

Also pretty annoying when you can't find a place to rent, because the apartments start getting taken over by "enterpreneurs" such as your friend.

That, and the price inflation sucks. I am going to look at a former AB&B property to rent today. The ludicrous price will be discussed, if they are unwilling to negotiate, the place will likely stay empty for the summer months(AZ, in a tourist oriented corner of the valley).

Isn't that just always the case with a common tourist destination?

If I can rent out 12 months at $1,000 (= $12k), vs 150 / 200 days at $150 (= $22.5-30k) then as a property owner you have a decision to make. Short term lets are more work, but more profitable.

They'll likely not care it stays empty, because it's to be expected that on some dates and months it will not be rented out.

It is true. The beauty offer I have is I only want/need a place for June-Sept. Could be a win-win... if off-season rate can be agreed upon. Otherwise, when the boss doesn't have me staying in Hyatts & Hiltons, I am rambling when it's <100°F.

You say "entrepreneur", but I don't see anything wrong with the approach -- as long as you follow the laws.

Often the solution the the problem is that you start buying the properties rather than renting them, which means profits per unit will be (much) higher (but you will also need additional capital to support that). Or you buy an entire block with 5 or 10 apartments; then there should be no complaints.

Because it's literally rent-seeking and leeches wealth from the economy, jacking up prices while contributing nothing?

Of course they do - they manage a place that visitors can stay in. Which is why people pay them. And you're clearly not a landlord if you think it involves no effort.

Sure, if a society thinks they cause more harm than good, by all means, ban them, but that's a different argument.

And a short term let business requires even more effort to run. It's a lot of work, and part of the reason why (even though I think it's a great business to be in), it's not one I really want to run.

>>> a person would rent out 10 apartments at $2k/mo and rent them on at $300 a night.

> And you're clearly not a landlord if you think it involves no effort.

The person described in the original post isn't a landlord.

Tomato, tomato. They still have to manage renters, take care of regular maintenance (cleaning), etc. If anything they have more work than the actual landlord.

There's no way to not make this sound insulting, but do you know the actual work that a landlord has to do?

I should hope so, since I'm one. We own two apartments which we rent out, one of them on AirBnB, and handling the reservations, receiving the guests, giving them tips on how to navigate the city, constantly cleaning and replacing linen, etc, is way more time consuming than the occasional maintenance we do on the other apt, which is rented long-term.

Why? What am I missing?

Hm, I guess your AirBNB is pretty nice, and our building is pretty shitty - we've had to have our building's super come in at least once a month to fix this or that - pipe making awful racket, door doesn't close or latch, lock needs to be replaced, neighbors making too much noise (although sadly, that problem wasn't fixed by the super with a wrench.)

No, our building isn't that great, it's pretty old and rickety. But most AirBNB reservations are just for a few days, so during the high season we might have to come in 4-5 times a month to do all that crap I mentioned before.

But they're not a landlord. They sublease an apartment to others. They clean up after guests and put out fresh towels; they don't do the sorts of repairs and upkeep that must be done between long-term tenants.

I commend your Lawful Neutral alignment.

Agreed.

While on the whole, I definitely can see the argument that AirBnB needs more regulation, in this particular case it seems more like a classic case of "established players using the law to shut out competition" than "creating regulations to curb some of the issues created by AirBnB".

Same here! It is such a surreal experience to just nestle into the heart of a Japanese neighborhood for the first time (and actually still is, going on well over a year now).

If it wasn't for AirBnB's abundant selection of places and prices it would have been near-impossible to get those kind of experiences (and new friends and countless other random things).

Same

> It's a shame that I now have to choose between hostels and overpriced hotels

You don't.

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