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by victoro
3622 days ago
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> Going after AirBNB (barring those running large hotel-like operations) isn't addressing the supply issue. What is the definition of a large hotel-like operation exactly? I have a friend who lives at his parents house, rents 2 apartments and then re-rents them out exclusively on Airbnb. He lives off the difference between the rent he pays and what he earns from re-renting on Airbnb, basically arbitraging the difference between the long-term rental and short-term rental markets in his city. His small hustle is no Hilton, but it affects the property market in a small way by taking two properties off the market. Airbnb takes a lot of the pain out of running things like this, and enables a lot more people to do it on a small-time scale. Taken together, it will affect the market as much, or more than a few large operations. Left unchecked, I think such practices will, in the long term, push housing (both rental and purchase) prices up while pushing traditional hotel rental prices down, so I think the interests of home renters/buyers are actually aligned with those of the lodging industry. Increasing housing supply is one tool we can use to control housing prices. Zoning laws, when enforced properly, are another tool. This investigation seeks to address that second tool. |
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No idea, but I'm thinking more of an absentee operator model with lots of rooms and properties. What your friend is doing is probably too small to impact the rental market, but in aggregate could be an issue if many were doing it. It's easy for me to say that I don't mind that sort of thing since I own a home and people like your friend would give me additional choices when I go on vacation, but the immediate community may think differently and I think that's where it needs to be decided. It's why I'm really questioning Federal regulation and involvement of a local issue.
Taking it to an extreme, look at a place like San Francisco. Someone there doing what your friend does would be impactful, yet the city itself won't permit enough new construction to solve the supply issue. Regulating AirBNB doesn't solve much there, and the city itself won't allow a solution to the supply issue. By regulating AirBNB, the city itself is actually taking additional adverse action on the supply issue rather than doing anything to mitigate - but that's their choice, their voters, their city. It's not my place to sit here in Maine and tell you that's wrong, but that is essentially what a Federal regulator does by proxy.