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I think as hosts, whilst acknowledging the benefits for the local economy in terms of income to an area, as well as of course our own pockets, we should acknowledge and understand the impact STRs have on our local communities.
As citizens in a community, we should be concerned about the impact STRs has had on house prices whether for purchase or for rent, creating a shortage of affordable accommodation, particularly for essential low income workers.
There is a huge difference between sharing your home and having multiple properties for STR which takes property off the market for residents who live, work and study in an area.
Cities with large STR have also seen a change in their local community with more provision opening up to serve the STR market.
Agree, I donât think anyone wants to see whole neighborhoods and communities decimated by STRs. There needs to be a middle ground. I know personally I am kind of resentful that the explosion of STRs everywhere (everyone and their brother are doing it nowadays) seems to be bringing all of us down.
Après nous le dĂŠluge. Lol. Airbnbâs booked entire home listings represent a tiny fraction (0.82%) of LAâs housing units. Frequently booked entire home listings (so-called full-time listings) represent 0.18% of LAâs housing stock (2,562 units out of 1.45 million housing units in Los Angeles). Realistically now, does that sound like Airbnb is the driver of housing and rental prices in LA?
Not sure why you feel this information is relevant for me @lahope.
I have made a general point about hosts being responsible citizens in the communities in which they live. And Airbnb being a responsible multinational.
I would have thought hosts in LA would welcome the opportunity to be able to legally have bookings for less than 30 days.
From what I have read Los Angeles government is just looking to legalise and regulate the STR market in common with other major cities and areas where it is prevalent.
Yes, the deal is that the Hotel Industries Pay Big Bucks To Fight SHort-Term Vacation Rentals and Home Sharing! That is who and what is behind these draconian new regulations, make no mistake; especially in Lala Land. we used to host in Santa Monica (where you can now only host a room in your own home and not your entire home while you travel, for less than 30 days). The entire Farce was started, fended and won by the very well lawyered hotel industry. It STINKS. yes, there are some legit concerns about Airbnb, especially in the Bay area where landlords are kicking out LT tenants to turn. greater profit on STR, or where âparty housesâ pop up all over the Russian River area. But those are exceptions. Where we used to rent in LA, our guests were much quietr than we, (when we were home), and also used less parking (one car as apposed to two, plus our friends and visitors). None of our neighbors had any issues with our guests over a ten year period. Then the Hotel Industry gets their knickers in a twist as Airbnb explodes across the globe, and we have these Air horror stories get a ton of press, and voila! People take sides, itâs voted on, and the chair gets kicked out from under hosts. Go to the Council Meeting! Show the wealthy monopolizers that there is room for everybody. In Santa Monica, for example, the Air listings were significantly less expensive than hotels (or even motels), so this was an entirely diffrent demographic. People who may not have traveled otherwise because they couldnât afford it. That last thought is just an opinion, but one that I truly belive. There is room for everybody and people are traveling more now than they ever have historicallyâŚand that is wonderful! Airbnb is freaking awesome, and really, should be looked at as a positive thing. People have been homesharing all over the world for eons. Now we have these amazing websites that allow us to that more easily. Hotels need to stop thinking so small. Thanks for reading.
Right behind you LaHope! The hotel industry paid BIG BUCKS to sway the NIMBY popâŚand itâs WORKING! Helsi, your points are valid, but not entirely relevant to the problem in NY, LA and Seattle. In those cities, itâs the HOTEL INDUSTRY creating the stink! SF is an exception, and is a sore subject, because with the massive infux of welathy Silicon Valley techies, that city is now unaffordable and landlords have been evicting at a shocking rate to increase rents or do STR. But NOT in LA! Definitely not. Though rents are obscening high, Los Angeles still has no housing shortage and these allegations (levied by the POWERFUL and WELL-FUNDED hotel industry) that STR are responsible for rising rents, increased crime, and housing shortages are unfounded or rare situational anomolies. If I were still in LA, Iâd be at that meeting. You have my full support!
Seattle rents are actually dropping now for the first time in a decade. Apts are sitting vacant as supply is outpacing demand, and there are more to be built. The % of STRâs vs total rental stock is miniscule, and a % of those will never be put back on to the LTR market. So STRâs are absolutely not the driver of higher rent, and I do believe that the free market will take care of these issues. The crazy council now wants to overturn our state law barring rent control. That is a whole other topic, but that absolutely does not work!!! There are also more hotels being built, meaning the crazy hotel prices will come down and things will all even out. Those that arenât profiting any longer from STR wonât do it, as itâs a lot more work. As I said before, I have no problem paying a % tax to the city and licensing, etc., but the proposed rules in Seattle are ridiculous. Somehow anyone that starts a business is praised as a local entrepreneur, but anyone with rental property is just an âevil, greedy landlordâ and Iâm tired of that label.
@ Helsi Not sure why you feel anything you have to say is relevant to our situation here in LA, which you clearly know nothing about. Example âI would have thought hosts in LA would welcome the opportunity to be able to legally have bookings for less than 30 days.â Thirty days has nothing to do with fight for no-cap on the number of days we can host. Say I hosted 307 days in 2017, a cap of 180 days, which is the current proposal, would cut my income from hosting in half along with that of many others. It would also affect my housekeeperâs income and it would cut into the $40 million TOT the city is collecting from our Airbnb guests, income the city crucially needs. Furthermore, every single dollar that our guests spend stays in LA and benefits the local economy. You canât say that about the money spent by hotel guests. If you are relying on âa quick Google searchâ for your information about LA you are going to find a lot of bias sponsored by the hotel industry, Local 11, the hotel company union, and LAANE, a Local 11 mouthpiece that manufactures studies that show Airbnb as evil incarnate. Airbnb is not responsible for the shortage of âaffordable accommodationâ in LA, and we are not going to be scapegoated. Not sure why you feel the need to weigh in on every single topic.
Hi @lahope this is an international forum and we are all allowed to contribute towards topics, thatâs how a forum works.
You didnât make the original post another member did and I answered their query looking for more information.
Itâs not up to you to tell me whether or not I can contribute. In fact thatâs downright rude.
We all have an interest in making sure Airbnb develops in a way that minimises its impact on local communities, so that it is a sustainable model. ~This is something that should be important for everyone in the Airbnb community, who isnât looking at things soley in terms of how it impacts on their bottom line.
This is not about what the hotel lobby may be saying, it is about managing local community concerns and looking at the real impact in area not just for today, but looking to the future. For example, as I am sure you are aware Los Angeles has one of the fastest growing Airbnb economies.
Word. Anyone who has ever been a landlord and switched to STR after a horror story knows the world of difference. I have had tenants absolutely trash my properties and treat me like a daddy warbucks because I own a property. I felt like the sky opened and angels sang when I discovered vacation renting years ago. lol The usurping of affordable LT housing is a MYTH and really concentrated to [anomaly] regions, (like parts of SF). But those scare tactic stories get all the press.
You made some valid points about being integruous with hosting STRs, but I donât believe that hosts who kick out the 90 yr. olds from their apartments to create STRs are sensitive enough to be posting on this forum. We are all hosting together and the vast majority want to do that with integrity. The OP is in LA (where I used to host for over a decade, even before Air), and in Los Angeles it is 100% about what the hotel lobby is saying. Los Angeles does NOT have a housing crisis created from STRs. LA does not even have a housing crisis, per se. Los Angeles is inundated with large scale developers (mostly foreign/out-of-town), who tear down low-income housing and replace it with high-income housing, utilizing political loopholes in the process that relieve them from the law dictating that they replace at least 10% of that original low-income housing. They are the single greatest factor in skyrocketing rents and fewer affordable units. Lawmakers know this, but they must play the political dance, as Airâs popularity (and unpopularity) widens, the latter [in that region] was WHOLLY STARTED, perpetuated and funded by the hotel industry. Period. Which is quite sad, because many of the people who use Air (and other sites like VRBO) are often not even guests who would drop the $200-300 to stay in LA hotels to begin with. Itâs a whole different demographic, and there is room for everybody. But the housing issues you state are anomolies and most definitely not caused by STRsâŚin Los Angeles. In fact, there are very few places, like [parts of] SF, where that has even been shown to be a meaningful contributing factor. In LA at least, that is a myth [created and perpetuated] by the powerful, well-funded hotel lobby. Please donât be swayed by their unscrupulous tactics, regardless of how convincing the salacious news articles may be. Thanks for listening. You sound like a nice person who wnats to be a responsible host.
I think every large city has an issue with homelessness.
I am not sure why you feel that LA doesnât have a housing crisis.
I was staggered (according to the Cityâs own Homeless Service Authority) to see LA city has 34,000 people on the streets or in hostels, in a city of 4 million people. We have 8000 in London in a city with 10 million people.
LA City has said this is a 23 per cent increase over the previous year. They say it affects all communities including veterans, families, long term homeless and young people and is attributed in part to increasing housing costs and stagnant wages.
Now of course not all, or most of this, is at the door of STRs in LA, but we would be naive or looking the other way, if we werenât to recognise that STRs has had some impact on increasing housing purchase and rental costs and decreasing the availability of LTRs.
As a former journalist I think I know enough not to be swayed by inaccurate media content , but nor am I swayed by those who see no disbenefits to the huge growth of STRs in large cities and tourist areas.
Was not seeking to offend in any way, nor to imply that you arenât informed. But on the subject of Los Angeles and its politics, I do know a great deal more information than Iâd care to! ha The low income housing issue and homelessness are two very different subjects. Homelessness is an extremely complicated and many-faceted issue all across the US, as a great many people living on the streets are there because of mental illness (in the 1980âs we let out institutionalized people to fend for themselves!) and substance abuse. There are also a great many people who lost their housing (even owners) due to an unforseen illness, (which is hard to imagine for Europeans, but was major contributing factor to our real estate meltdown and recession in 2008). Of course there are people, including children who are homeless as a result of low income housing being removed from the market, but that can mostly be related to what I explained in my previous post, detailing wealthy capitalist investors razing entore blocks. STRs have been shown to nary make a dent (arguably not even noteworthy, yet the hotel lobby and their sleazy tactics would have us think otherwise), in available housing and are absolutely, categorically not contributing to rising rents (which is the only true housing crisis) in LA. There are tons of available apartments in LA. Tons. They are just getting more and more expensive. As convincing as these smear campaigns started by the hotel industry may sound, STRs are simply not the cause of any housing crisis, in Los Angeles. Now, I have very little knowledge abot other cities, but in LA, I know my stuff, and was on the frontline of that issue almost from the outset.
In Seattle our politicians are very friendly to the homeless. They can camp all over the place and park their RVâs darn near anywhere. Guess what? We have more and more homeless coming to our city. Combined with legalized marijuana and there are lots of people loving being here rent free. These people donât want housing. Iâm all for helping, but we canât be responsible for all the homeless from all over the place with mental illness and drug issues. I think Seattleites are tiring of needles in our playgrounds and tents all over the city randomly. Homelessness is a complex issue, and while some folks need and deserve help, a good portion of them turn down a warm bed because there are too many ârulesâ. STRs are such a tiny issue itâs ridiculous how they get blamed for everything. Iâve said this before, but the expensive regulations and inspections theyâve added to LTRs here, combined with a recent 17% property tax increase and a lot of hand holding/things we have to provide renters along with practically no way to evict them has caused us to have to increase our rents. Weâve also had to raise the qualifications for renters (I.e. minimum income) so that we donât get stuck with someone crappy because we now have to rent to the âfirst qualified applicantâ, no matter how much of a jack-ass they might be. We used to give people chances but no more. Also we can no longer even do a criminal background check on prospective renters so we could be renting to an axe murderer, I kid you not. All of this is causing a lot of us small timers that had older, affordable units to sell our property to the big developers who will put 24 units where we had 8 and the average rent will be $2800 minimum instead of$1500. And now they want to screw me out of my one little Airbnb unit. If I sound bitter itâs because I am!!
The PNW region has apoplectic homelessnessâŚhaving nothing to do with STRs. My folks live in Portland and it is a literal El Dorado for street camping, which has absolutely mushroomed over the past five years. I have seen personally soooooo many homeless in Portland and Seattle (a STARK contrast to other cities), who are not mentally ill, but instead who are young, healthy, sane and say it is their âlifestyleâ to live in a tent in someoneâs front or backyard, or squatting when homeowners are remodeling, or with [permannet] camps right next to kidsâ playgrounds or schools, with taxpaying homeowners having little to no legal recourse whatsoever. It is quite true that other cities (San Francisco in particular) ship busloads of homeless people to the Pacific Northwest (confirmed by local lawmakers and officials), because of the services available to them there. Those landlord restrictions you detail, especially the lack of ability to do a background check (standard in so many cities), is just absurd. Some of the politicians in the great PNW must be sniffing glue. OKay this isnât about LA, lol, but I feel you. Sorry youâre dealing with that.
Very well written article (had to look up simulacra, lol), but so limited. The author cites a studyâŚfinanced byâŚyep, The Hotel Industry! And one study was only done in Manhattan, which has housing issues completely incongruous to the rest of the country. People in that city stalk dead people waiting to snap up their apartments!! Another analyzes data off of Air every three days, but does not differentiate a truly commercial unit (one that would be used by a local as an apartment/primary residence) from anything other than it is listed as anything other than âentire home,â which as hosts all know, that can vary WILDLY from an apartment, house or tepee with an outhouse in someoneâs yard. So many âentire unitsâ would never be rented on long-term basisâ. I cry bogus on anything funded by hotels. The study in LA by an independent body, states that Air does NOT drive up rents there, whilst another article states that the future effect is still unkown. Typical sensationalized clickbait media piece. Just reiterates exactly what I said. The Hotel Industry uses sleazeball tactics and bogus studies to try and sway public opinion against STRs, harming everyone in the process, but especially low-income housing dwellers, as it cajoles them into thinking that their neighbors who are bringing tourists dollars to their regions, are making their rents go up, when nothing could be further from the truth. The Hotel Industry as a result, is simply aiding the [practically criminal] developers one of the main reasons that some cities experience an [affordable] housing shortage. Truly legit complaints about STRs are: worry about a transient vibe taking over neighborhoods, loud guests or parties (like by the Russian River in the bay area), excessive parking use, etc. I donât know about other hosts, but i never allowed parties and my guests were a lot quieter than my family and only would have one car, whilst we had three. Maybe if hotels would stop thinking so small, theyâd realize the really great statistic discovered that Air had . a hand in creating, even if an unintended effect: more people are traveling now than ever. Younger, upwardly mobile and adventurous. That was shown to be an unexpected boon for hotels, that are experiencing higher volume than ever. Truth is, there are currently issues and things to talk about, but is is shown that the alleged detriment that the site is causing to communities, is largely controversial and still unclear.
Part of why we have a housing crisis everywhere in the US is the 20 million foreclosures that occurred in the last decade with even moreâ10million is predicatedâto come. Most were caused by the five major banks which bundled our mortgages and sold them as commodities without our knowledge or consent and with the help of a shady shadow banking system. They had to buy and sell thes MBS so many times that they had to create an electronic registration systems and destroyed the original notes. Way too many of them to store. So when the bubble burst and the banks went into court to foreclose, they presented forged and photoshopped documents (the famous robosigners)⌠bottom line is an estimated 80% of those foreclosures were fraudulent. In most cases summary judgment was granted.
I could go on and on⌠but the bottom line is that these millions of foreclosures resulted in millions and millions of homeowners becoming renters and competing with an already flooded housing market. This is why we have a housing crisis. Not because a few people are doing STRs.
, but nor am I swayed by those who see no disbenefits to the huge growth of STRs in large cities and tourist areas.
The low income housing issue and homelessness are two very different subjects. Homelessness is an extremely complicated and many-faceted issue all across the US, as a great many people living on the streets are there because of mental illness (in the 1980âs we let out institutionalized people to fend for themselves!) and substance abuse. There are also a great many people who lost their housing (even owners) due to an unforseen illness, (which is hard to imagine for Europeans, but was major contributing factor to our real estate meltdown and recession in 2008). Of course there are people, including children 
who are homeless as a result of low income housing being removed from the market, but that can mostly be related to what I explained in my previous post, detailing wealthy capitalist investors razing entore blocks. STRs have been shown to nary make a dent (arguably not even noteworthy, yet the hotel lobby and their sleazy tactics would have us think otherwise), in available housing and are absolutely, categorically not contributing to rising rents (which is the only true housing crisis) in LA. There are tons of available apartments in LA. Tons. They are just getting more and more expensive. As convincing as these smear campaigns started by the hotel industry may sound, STRs are simply not the cause of any housing crisis, in Los Angeles. Now, I have very little knowledge abot other cities, but in LA, I know my stuff, and was on the frontline of that issue almost from the outset.