EU to propose short-term rental rules to tackle social crisis in housing
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
Airbnb took the couch surfing model and added payment for people who couldn’t or didn’t want to participate in the social exchange, and when it was people renting out a spare room it was pretty rad.
Now you have holiday slumlords with a managers and cleaners that expect you to strip beds, load washers and alike, all while running the risk of being filmed in the bathroom or being trapped in a building not up to fire regs cause it was never intended to be a hotel.
If you and your kids are filmed in the bathroom or if you book accommodation well in advance of a big sporting event and the host realised they’ve missed an opportunity to gouge and cancels to re-list, you’re often SOL.
In Australia you don’t need to be a car dealer to buy and sell a car, but if you make a business out of the regular sale of buying and selling cars then you need to register as a car dealer and acquire a licence. The same thing needs to happen to platform rentals where the host is doing more than renting a room or letting their home while on holiday.
Without taking into account build requirements for accessibility and fire safety, in many LGAs in Australia the local rates/taxes are higher for investment properties, and if a property was zoned as a residence a town planning application for a change of use needs to be submitted.
For examples sake this may be an extra $1000-2000 per year for taxes and $5000-10000 one off for the approval, however the fines for not notifying/undertaking are often less than $1000, meanwhile a hotel with a non-compliant fire suppression system or expired licence will be promptly shut and fined enthusiastically.
Like Uber, Airbnb thrived on a lack of regulation but similar to uber a big chunk of their “fleet” has degraded to the point where they’re just as bad as what we had before, gross cabs and shitty hotels.
Would this be a popular approach, not a chance, people have built serious portfolios of AirBnb properties but people should be able to live and participate THEIR cities and communities.