[carlosjobim]

> but parasites like AirBnB and similar companies making a killing off offering apartments 5x above normal asking price to rich nomads who will say "wow, it's so cheap!" without realizing they're being ripped off, and killing neighborhoods by driving rent prices up.

The parasites in this case are the landlords, not AirBnB. And they're the one driving the rent prices up, not the renters.

Why does everybody refuse to adress the elephant in the room? Because they have parents and uncles who live by exploiting young workers for rent, and don't want to hurt their feelings?

[diggan]

> The parasites in this case are the landlords, not AirBnB. And they're the one driving the rent prices up, not the renters.

What about considering both as parasites, just different methods for achieving basically the same thing: "More money for me".

Obviously, the landlords are the ones who raise the prices. But I think it'd be ignoring reality if you didn't consider the fact that AirBnb made all of this so much easier and simpler from the landlords. There are platforms that let you sync to many portals, and even see what weeks you should raise the prices to optimize for as much profit as possible. AirBnb and the other platforms are contributing to a constant, collaborative raise of prices.

[carlosjobim]

AirBnB plays a very minor role in this. Yes, they make short-term rentals possible for landlords who are too dumb and lazy to be able to do it otherwise. There were other simliar platforms before AirBnB, there will be others after them.

[diggan]

> There were other simliar platforms before AirBnB, there will be others after them.

That's true, but it wasn't a huge industry like it is now, at least not here where I live (Barcelona, Spain). Once AirBnb appeared on the market, it kind of blew up in popularity. And while hotels/hostels needed permission from the government to make properties into hotels, the vacation rental market didn't (initially) so they ended up buying a lot of property meant for residents, but used it for tourists.

I'm not saying AirBnb is the sole party to blame here, but vacation rental companies do carry some responsibility for this.

[rty32]

That's why the original post says "like Airbnb", and laws like those in NYC ban all of them.

[carlosjobim]

What does that have to do with my comment? The blame is squarely on the landlords, blaming AirBnB or other similar websites is just because people can't deal with the fact that the persons harming them are nearby. So they need an outside force to put the blame on.

Good on NYC to ban short term rentals of residential properties. Short term visitors should stay in buildings especially made for that purpose, such as hotels.

[forgotoldacc]

AirBnB is a middle man for an awful activity.

Saying "I didn't do it. I just facilitate it" doesn't absolve them of responsibility for killing cities. And AirBnB is lobbying to get their city destroying service legalized in more areas. They know what they're doing. They deserve the criticism. They could back off at any moment, but choose not to for personal gain.

[shiroiushi]

Except there's not enough hotels in NYC for tourists, because the city is paying them to house homeless people. If you want to stay in NYC for an affordable price (as a non-American), then you have to stay in an AirBNB outside the city and take a train in every day.