LiznMN big corporations do not care about the small guy. If you know more where she can take it to, please share with us otherwise it is a waist of energy.
How much may I ask are you charging per night for your place?
Erica I am myself somewhat in the same boat with you. I am glad that Steen took the time and had gone in to detail about the tribulation his friends are going true.
There are many here on this forum that do not have any issues and will hardly understand. Social media sights are all the same and I would not count on them, waist of time.
Anyone with 4 and lower star ratings whose home is in a place with gazillions listings and who rely on that extra income will eventually end up with a shaft. Someone on this forum a while back did recommend not to put all your eggs in the same basket, great advise.
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Thereās no need to take this tone with me. I only suggested she do what I would do in that situation, and I believe I was showing concern for her situation. And no, thereās no reason in this context for me to share with you how much I charge for my rooms. You may not mean it this way, but your manner here looks combative.
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I didnāt read it that way. Seems more like frustration with trying to contact bnb. They have made that increasingly more difficult over this past year.
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WOW I am not taking any tone with you, it is your response that is combative with me and I do not appreciate it.
Where should one go higher up? I donāt know, do you mean Brian the CEO, which is waist of time.
I was asking what you are charging, like I asked Erica to, only and only since it appears that those that charge budget rates including me, do seem to have more issues
Fair enough. I misjudged. Itās very easy to mistake tone with the written word alone. Iām by far not a luxury host. We have a very nice house and comfortable, affordable rooms. Iāve had a few occasions when it took a while to reach someone at Airbnb, but for the most part, Iāve been pretty lucky talking with people there.
Thatās crazy. I donāt know what is up with Airbnb these days. The hotel industry lobby and local city governments have put together a pretty strong campaign against Airbnb hosts and rather than fight it (as they did years ago), Airbnb now support and enables it.
Chris Lehane is now Airbnbās head of global policy and public affairs. He is a lawyer and political consultant who served as a spokesperson under Bill Clinton. Why the heck is a seasoned politician of his caliber working for Airbnb??
In Toronto, Canada this week, Lehane "welcomed the City of Torontoās proposed regulations for short-term rentals, saying the growing industry should pay its āfair share of taxes.ā Ummm, I have always done that from day one with my rentals. Sick that this he paints his clients as tax cheats. The new regulations add a 10% tax. This is on top of the mandatory 13% HST Airbnb hosts already pay if they earn over 30k/yr as well as the personal income tax hosts pay when they declare Airbnb income (average is about 30%). It is a big risk of you donāt declare. Hotels pay 15% corporate tax (similar to minimum wage worker rate) and 13% HST. They will get a 4% tax to Airbnb hostās 10%. So in essence Airbnb hosts making over 30k/yr who hold a regular job are on the hook for 53%tax while hotels pay 32%. And for all of this the Airbnb host gets a gig that pays well under minimum wage beforeā tax.
A recent campaign of news stories have supplemented the already bad rap that Airbnb hosts suffer in Toronto recently to assist with Airbnb politician Lehane, the hotel industry, the City and their effort to mostly shut down Airbnbās tiny cottage industry (3,400 units in our city of 6 million are listed by Airbnb hosts with 2+ listings). Mainstream news has described Airbnb hosting as a āheistā.
If that isnāt enough here is the final nail in the coffin, another regulation is that anyone listed on Airbnb (or other short term rental companies) must register with the city and can only do so if it is their primary residence. That permanently shuts down all hosts with 2+ listings on Airbnb - 1/3 of Airbnb listings in our city, most of which are rented on a continuous basis. It leaves behind the primary residence listings only, must of which are only available for a short period of time during the year. I am guessing this amounts to only a few weeks per year on average. So really this probably wipes out 85% of Airbnb income in our city. WHY DOES AIRBNB WELCOME THIS?? Anyone?? What is the benefit of they wore out 85% of their income in Toronto??
I have been planning my escape from Airbnb for a while now. I will put my listings back into the long term rental market. Ironically, the long term rental market is what I had escaped to Airbnb from a few years ago.
IT IS A MYTH THAT AIRBNB IS BIG MONEY. WHEN YOU COUNT ALL OF YOUR EXPENSES AND YOUR TIME (EVEN MIN WAGE) YOU COME OUT BEHIND. Why would a landlord go to Airbnb of our isnāt actually profitable? Read onā¦
We have an over-regulated rental system here in Ontario (actually most of Canada) that renders landlords toothless and without the means to evict tenants or make them pay rent or damage. Asking for bond or a deposit is illegal. It is easy for professional tenants to play the system and is not uncommon for a landlord to go without rent for up to a year while working through the harrowing process of evicting the tenant. It is costly, time consuming and very stressful. Landlords are routinely accused of fake maintenance issues by their free-loader tenants as a means of prolonging the process. The tenant just mentions a faux issue (no proof required) and the tables inevitably turn on the landlord for failing to provide a reasonable standard of accommodation. Now it the landlord who is on trial and must fix one false claim after another. To ham it up, tenants will create maintenance issues if proof is eventually and for by the adjudicatorā¦ a toilet paper roll stuffed down the toilet, a damaged appliance, whatever works. Landlords can face a 25k fine at the whim of an adjudicator for just about anything. A lien will be put against your property of you fail pay. There is no appeal system or higher court. This is one of many regulations that make landlording a risky option. Short term rental appealed to me because it reduced my exposure to this very real problem.
The city relies on small landlords to provide housing for the hard-to-house. It saves them bucket loads of cash and bad publicity as they milk the āgreedy old slum lordā perception in the media to keep housing problems off of their plate. The City look like the good guys trying to help the poor in the face of the rich money bags landlord. In reality, small landlords are mostly just average people who work in a regular job and earn modest incomes. They often love in the same property as their tenant (s) and are extra careful about how they spend their money.
Finding out that your are a scapegoat is not something that you figure out before you become a landlord. Google searches donāt return this fine detail. You figure it out after your are knee deep in it and get to know other landlords and hear their stories. And so we will sell and the next unwitting landlord will come along.
Airbnb is finished for Toronto landlords on need of refuge.
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Hi Steen,
Most of the high tech companies like Amazon, Facebook, Airbnb, Alibaba, Apple and others are now controlling the markets. They have acquired wast wealth and money rules the world after all. We have presently store after store closing their doors, and the impact of laid off workers has a huge Domino effect. It is called Trickle Down Economy. I hope that your friend with your help can take the knowledge acquired and turn things around for himself. He has a good friend in you and that is huge.
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Sorry, thatās not what trickle down is about. Itās about tax breaks to the extremely wealthy.
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Trickle down economy was created with the idea that by giving the Rich and corporations tax brakes, that they would reinvest in to creating jobs and the economy.
Hi Violetta & Erica
Thanks for the email
Have a happy and safe 4th July.
Best regards Steen
Steen, thank you! I loved Martinaās song lyrics. Have a wonderful weekend.
Just an update Airbnb offered me a $50 couponā¦
After my case had been reviewed and now "closed " again. I told them to keep it and Iād rather have fair judgements towards hosts. I brought up everything I did to remedy the situation again as well since they claim I only addressed the Wi-Fi not the smell. Not true at all. And if there was a smell everyone would be complaining about it.
I know they donāt care about facts.
Erica, do not take it to hart. Unfortunately the nice guest will be on the loosing end.
I am canceling my License with the city as have so many others by now. Nightly rates are sky rocketing in the city.
I am still on this forum as I am curious how all others are doing.
My update: This may be my last post on this forum. As of yesterday I did cancel my license with the city and no longer will be hosting on airbn or any other platform.
I do feel grateful to Airbnb who provided a way for me to earn the income to pay my bills. Yes there were some problems, but dealing with public/guest is always going to be a challenge and for most of us it was a new territory.
We all have our individual life styles that are not always compatible and so do the guest. I for shore had my own as I am a big time animal lover. I had some real dear guest that left a worm spot in my hart. Lately I had some that I prefer to forget about.
As for Airbnb, I think that Airbnb presently has a difficult position. Many cities around US and Worldwide are putting restrictions on Airbnb. In addition Hotel Lobby is going to do everything to minimize and limit the competition. I would not be surprised if some of the problem guest may have been employees of some Hotel chains. I know I had a couple who were very sweet and who stayed only one night. However my most recent guests are the ones I prefer to forget about. I know someone mentioned how in the past Airbnb fought back cities that wanted to ban hosting. Litigationās are costly and can ruin a company in no time, and there are so many cities that want to ban or restrict hosting. I personally think where Airbnb has failed was to accept way to many host, and by doing so it invited Investors who turned neighborhoods in to commercial zones. Whole apartment buildings were converted in to individual Airbnbās. I think Airbnb is working hard to work with individual cities presently, to avoid even more restrictions. Unfortunately this is not enough for some of us who can not afford any longer to stay as host. I myself am retired and donāt have the energy and the funds, but for those that are willing and are able to invest the energy and resources Airbnb will offer a great opportunity.
I am somewhat sad to go, but I wish the Airbnb community success and all the best.
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Wow, Violeta ā¦ I respect your decision and wish you well.
I wish you the best!
How can anyone stay an extra day without your permission?
Either you are around (living in the same apartment), then you simply tell her on check-out day to pack her bags and go. Very easy. Even more so if there is another guest who wants to check in that day.
Or else, if you arenāt around, and nobody else wants to check in, who cares? Simply let her stay and donāt worry about getting paid. She isnāt taking anything away from anyone else, after all.
You do have a strange attitude towards other people, if you will excuse me for saying so.
Couldnāt disagree more @Eberhard_Blocher why should a guest stay for free, just because you have a room available?
On that basis, you should not charge for any guests when you have space available at your listing.
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I didnāt say that guests should stay for free, @Helsi. On the contrary, I always ask guests to leave once the period they paid for is over.
Having said this, @ehv5002 obviously didnāt ask this one guest to leave on time. Well, thatās her decision only. Why cry over spilled milk, i.e. why fight for a month to get extra payment, when clearly she didnāt do her job right, in the first place.
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