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Cities
Should Crack Down on Airbnb Hosts
AUG 25, 2014 9:28 AM
EST
By
Leonid Bershidsky
The apartment rental
site Airbnb has agreed to provide the New York attorney general's
office with the names and other personal details of 124 of its hosts.
I hope this marks the beginning of the end of Airbnb's current
business model in New York and other big cities, including Berlin,
where I live.
Airbnb said most of
the 124 being scrutinized are no longer listed on its site. The rest
are "hosts with multiple listings," according to Airbnb.
It's hard to know why they've been targeted, wrote Airbnb's David
Hantman on the company's Public Policy Blog, "without knowing
more about why the Attorney General is interested in these hosts
specifically."
That's disingenuous:
Airbnb knows full well why Attorney General Eric Schneiderman wants
the information, particularly about those who have listed multiple
properties for rent. In April, Schneiderman published an essay in the
New York Times voicing suspicion that some Airbnb "hosts"
are, in fact, "large, commercial enterprises with dozens of
apartments -- truly illegal hotels." If so, said Schneiderman,
they are violating New York's 2010 law against short-term rentals in
apartment buildings.
If Airbnb shares
information about such hosts with authorities, their rental activity
becomes very risky. Likewise, the San Francisco startup may not
always protect the data of ordinary apartment owners who rent out a
room to supplement their income. The government would like to know
whose rental income is not reported. If Airbnb caved by delivering a
few names, it will probably give up the rest eventually, provided
enough pressure is applied. Even for hosts whose taxes are in perfect
order, that may mean additional scrutiny and unpleasantness.
Yet I think Airbnb
and its hosts had it coming. I am a renter myself, and recently
completed the harrowing experience of a Berlin apartment search.
There are so few decent apartments on the market that about 20
potential tenants show up at every viewing. Prices are climbing at a
steady pace, and rental contracts take account of that. Landlords get
to pick and choose, asking uncomfortable questions about your
finances, family life and professional background. Despite steady
employment, I was turned down for three apartments before I found the
one my family now lives in. It's in Mitte -- one of three areas of
central Berlin where Airbnb rentals are concentrated.
I'm pleased that
Berlin has banned short-time rentals without express permission from
the city government. In central neighborhoods, it's much more
lucrative to rent by the day than by the month. So if rentals were
unregulated, long-term leases would be relegated to the city
periphery. That's true in most big cities, including New York. In
addition, I don't want to live in a building that functions as an
ad-hoc hotel.
Finally, regulating
rentals better serves the travelers themselves. Dealing with a large,
centralized service like Airbnb lulls tourists into a false sense of
security. They can easily end up in locations -- and situations --
they would have liked to avoid.
Why do people need
to supplement their incomes by renting in the first place? If your
apartment is too big for your needs, you can always rent it out
long-term and find a smaller one, or simply trade down. If that's not
possible, and short-time renting is one's only hope, some rules
should apply. Amsterdam, considered an Airbnb-friendly city, allows
people to rent out their residences for up to two months a year to a
maximum of four people at a time. That's reasonable: It's relatively
hassle-free for neighbors and not destructive to the long-term rental
market.
Similar restrictions
should apply in New York and other big cities. There's nothing wrong
with the sharing economy or with earning extra income, but there
should be curbs on greed, and taxes must be paid. A city government's
stamp of approval would also heighten confidence in the market.
In smaller towns,
which cannot always sustain a decent hotel, Airbnb could be allowed
to operate unregulated. Small communities are better than large
cities at policing themselves, and travelers would be glad of the
convenience -- and the often unforgettable experience -- of living
like locals. A tighter regulatory regime might force Airbnb's $10
billion valuation down a bit, but it would still be a viable business
-- without many of its current risks and unpleasant side effects.
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Berlim, tal como Barcelona, toma uma atitude anti-especulativa bem clara e determinada, afim de proteger e garantir o direito à habitação permanente aos residentes locais.
OVOODOCORVO
Berlin
cracks down on Airbnb rentals to cool market
Published: 01 May
2016
Berlin
has begun restricting private property rentals through Airbnb and
similar online platforms, threatening hefty fines in a controversial
move meant to keep housing affordable for locals.
The German capital
fears that the growing trend of people letting out apartments to
tourists through sites such as Airbnb, Wimdu and 9Flats is cutting
into a limited property supply and driving up rents.
From May 1st, the
city-state will enact a new law known by the German mouthful of
"Zweckentfremdungsverbot", or prohibition of improper use.
It is "a
necessary and sensible instrument against the housing shortage in
Berlin," said Andreas Geisel, Berlin's head of urban
development.
"I am
absolutely determined to return such misappropriated apartments to
the people of Berlin and to newcomers," he said.
Rents in Berlin shot
up 56 percent between 2009 and 2014, although at around 10 euros per
square metre this year, they are relatively low compared to other
major European cities.
Given that it is
more profitable to rent out whole apartments for short holiday lets,
some investors are holding on to apartments for such rentals rather
than having long-term tenants.
San Francisco-based
Airbnb.com -- short for the business's original name AirBed &
Breakfast -- is the biggest of several sites that allow people to
offer and find such rental accommodation worldwide.
While Berlin has
become one of Europe's top travel destinations, with 30.2 million
overnight stays last year, the Airbnb trend has also impacted the
local hotel industry.
According to
research firm GBI, the private online bookings represent a "parallel
market of an additional 6.1 million" overnight stays a year.
The new law was
passed in 2014 and provided for a two-year transition period that
ended on April 30, after which owners are only allowed to rent out
rooms via such portals, not entire flats or houses.
Offenders can face
fines of up to €100,000 ($113,000).
To catch them, the
city has even appealed to the "civic spirit" of its
residents and asked them to anonymously report any suspected misuse
online.
Tim Boening, a
41-year-old artists' agent who rents out a loft in the trendy
Kreuzberg district, said he wasn't shocked by the new law, given the
practices he has witnessed.
There is, for
example, "the nice couple with two small apartments who move in
together into a bigger place and keep the two apartments to rent them
out on Airbnb," he told AFP.
"I don't think
that's good, it should be stopped," he said, as these apartments
are not available to "normal" tenants.
Marika, 48, couldn't
agree less and is furious about the change, having long rented out
four apartments near the centre of Berlin via Airbnb.
She believed that
the city is making Berliners pay for its failed housing policy while
serving the needs of the hotel industry.
"This is
unfair, we are forbidden from doing our work," said Marika --
not her real name.
The only impact, she
argued, would be that some groups, especially families, will simply
stay away.
She was especially
angry about the request to turn in offenders, saying that "in
Germany, of all places, maybe we should reconsider this kind of
thing," in reference to the Nazi and former East German
communist dictatorship in which denouncing others was common
practice.
Airbnb Germany said
"Berliners want clear and simple rules for home sharing, so they
can continue to share their own home with guests".
The practice differs
from other types of accommodation "and helps many Berliners pay
their rent," spokesman Julian Trautwein told AFP in a statement.
"We will
continue to encourage Berlin policy-makers to listen to their
citizens and to follow the example of other big cities such as Paris,
London, Amsterdam or Hamburg and create new, clear rules for normal
people who are sharing their own homes."
Wimdu has meanwhile
filed a suit, arguing the law breaches the constitution of the
city-state of Berlin.
And the owners of
start-up 9Flats said they had sold the brand to a Singapore company.
"We face a law
in Berlin that would drive us into bankruptcy," its boss Roman
Bach told the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Several property
owners who use Airbnb have formed the "Apartments Allianz"
to push back against the charge they are evil capitalists growing
rich on the backs of fellow Berliners.
Rather, they say,
they have offered "an attractive, varied range of beautiful and
individual apartments", and have through their personal
hospitality "significantly contributed to a positive image for
Berlin".
They say they are
"not international players, but working in Berlin for Berlin".
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