A plug for Airbnb

The full impact on communities may not be 100% positive.

I too have good experiences with them, however, the same place may well also be on Booking.com or Trip Advisor rentals, in my experience 25% cheaper, as you don’t pay the same exorbitant charges. You get more precise location information on these websites, whereas the exact location on Airbnb is only confirmed after you have booked.

The reason I like Airbnb is that you can pay upfront, and not be carrying around loads of cash to pay the hosts on your trip; especially if you change places every few days or so.
The fees are annoying though.
I've just booked 2 out of the 4 places we are staying in Italy in September; on Airbnb.
I do usually look through the sites to see if I can find the Airbnb ones on other sites first.
Sometimes there is a price difference.

We like to do a mixture of Airbnb and hotels when we travel. Usually we choose the shared space Airbnb option so we have a private bedroom in someone’s house and access to their kitchen and the rest of the house. Saves a lot of money to be able to cook instead of going to a restaurant every day. The best part is that you are a guest in someone’s home and they can tell you about life in their country giving you deeper insight into a new culture. Many interesting people, some ordinary stays and some hosts that become friends.

Jennifer, I think it must vary with different places. We were informed by 2 different Airbnb ‘s that is was cheaper to go through Airbnb vs booking via Booking.com. We do use Booking.com for many 1-2 night stays.

Do your own comparisons. Don't assume that the Airbnbs are telling the truth. Pay particular attention to what is and is not included in the price, whether the listing is on Airbnb, Booking.com, VRBO, HomeAway or any other resource.

whereas the exact location on Airbnb is only confirmed after you have booked.

I do find that a little annoying, although sometimes you can figure it out using photos on the listing in conjunction with Google Street View. I have only used Air BnB a couple of times, and will be using it for a few nights in France on our upcoming trip. We generally prefer to not stay in hotels, and for decades most of our trips to France have involved staying in gites for a week at a time, with hotels filling any extra days at the beginning and end. Now with Air BnB we can spend a night or 2 in a house or apartment to fill in those gaps. And we've only been using AirBnB in small towns and villages, where their probably isn't an issue with respect to their negative influence on neighborhoods.

I definitely cross reference and often find the same place listed on Airbnb and Booking.com. I even tracked one place down through Facebook (though I’m not a member). I find I usually can narrow down the location close enough. We usually don’t use Airbnb, unless we’re going to stay 6-7 nights.

Becky, if you stayed with the homeowners, it may have been legal. But my ritzy little suburban town has specifically prohibited rentals of less than 30 days. In nearby NYC, the tendency is for investors to remove an apartment from the public market and rent it (furnished but empty) exclusively on the web, for much more than they could get as a "resident" tenant. This harms local residents by driving up rents. Having lived in apartments (in my youth) for many years, I also know the problems with visitors clomping up the stairs, yelling in the hall, and putting their bags of garbage in the wrong place.

Edit: While AirBnB's reputation as a "disruptor" is not quite as bad as Uber's history (of ignoring local laws and regulations, and in Uber's case, building an App to deliver false data to local regulators in case they investigated them), they have usually had to be dragged into negotiations against their will. My point is that there are good reasons why cities have developed zoning laws, occupancy taxes, unrelated person dwelling limits, and so on. To pretend that efforts to evade such laws are good, flies in the face of generations of Americans (as well as those in other countries) seeking a safe, quiet place to raise their families-and if they can afford to purchase a home, to build their financial assets.

Recent Uber placements of real customers talking about how they helped to pay their own housing burden by renting out a spare room is a tear-jerker. But would we applaud someone opening an un-permitted restaurant or entertainment venue in their home? Be careful what kind of "freedom from regulation" you defend. You might find that foreclosure on your parents' block becoming a drunken-weekend party rental on AirBnB. There is no inherent right to rent out a spare room. In (U.S.) urban multifamily housing, it is almost always against the lease, Co-Op rules, or Condo bylaws.

For those of you comparing using or booking AirBnb with Booking dot Com or other aggregators consider this very important factor;

Booking Dot Com takes your money right away (it may or may not refund it) If you have a problem after you arrive Tough Luck.

Whereas AirBnb acts as an Escrow account keeping your funds until AFTER you have checked in and had a chance to encounter any problems with the listing before paying the owner. This ensures that the owners tend to live up to what they post and take care of any immediate problems.

I find the fees pretty reasonable in most cases. And consider this; It costs an AirBnb host $50 to cancel a booking so there is a definite disincentive for them to do that. This does NOT apply when using Booking.Com.

I am currently staying in an AirBnb in St Micheal's MD while a house I bought nearby is being fixed up and until I head out to Europe.

See it Here: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/7150441

We are here for two weeks and everything has gone perfectly. The place drips charm and is EXACTLY as advertised if not better.

On my upcoming 4-5 Month European Odyssey I am staying in AirBnb's in Paris, Florence, Rome, Naples, Athens, The Far South of Italy in Puglia ( for a month), Bugaria (again for a month) I expect all of those will go smoothly. The contact I have had with the Owners DIRECTLY is great.

Having said all of that I am careful when booking an AirBnb. I don't book with any host that has canceled more than one booking. I read the reviews carefully. I always contact the host before I book and start a communication with them. This has been especially important on this trip as I am bringing my dog with me. And there are some tricks to using the AirBnb site effectively. If you do these things you are likely to have a very good experience I think.

Let me add just a quick note: Most of the AirBnb owners will tell you exactly where their property is if you just contact them through the AirBnb site.

From time to time I get asked on the Hungary forum if i know where a short term rental is located. Even when the location isnt very clearly defined they generally haven't been hard to find. One trick relies on the fact that the renter generally use the same description on every listing site. So pull a unique sentence out and google the sentence and you may get most or all of the listings for the place. One will say where it is or give a clue you can track down on Google Street View.

Short Term Rental has been one of the greatest concepts for travelers. It opens up so many worlds and views.

What in life is 100% positive? The two folks i bought my places from were thrilled to make so much money. The shop owners in the area love me and those like me. The couple that manages the places are pretty happy as are the guys that renovated it. The other owners and tenants in the building love that i repaint the outside every couple of years. The folks on each side and across the street are pretty happy that values have gone up and have invested in cleaning up their places too..... Seems to be more on the positive side where i am at.

Another vote for AirBnB. I have stayed in 20+ of their accommodations over the past three years, plus others on Stayz, Homeaway and Travelmob. I find AirBnB to be good value and pretty reliable (only had one host cancel and it was well before our departure date) but I always do my detective work to figure out exactly where prospective accommodation is. I agree it should be included in the description before booking but I have only been caught out once, when a major (noisy) road turned out to be much closer than I expected. I nowadays read through each home's reviews, looking for clues to problems like that, because most people don't like to criticise, especially if the host was a nice person.

When my wife and I are travelling together, I book self-contained homes with kitchens etc. When I travel solo (usually overnight when photographing an event) I might instead book a private room.

Most of the AirBnb owners will tell you exactly where their property is if you just contact them through the AirBnb site.

Will AirBnB let that go through? I once tried to send an AirBnB host my email address so that she could send me some photos of the place that she hadn't yet put on-line, and AirBnB blocked off the address.

I think my first Airbnb was a year and a half ago. I've had great experiences in Europe. Sometimes the location isn't as convenient as I expected but the places have been as described and the hosts have been average to much nicer than expected.

I haven't booked one here in the US, the prices for the places I've looked at haven't been very good.

Tim, I am in your camp. I own a furnished rental but lease it for a year at a time. Our condo association is voting to limit rentals to a minimum of thirty days. The AirBnB’s in the building that rent for three days have been destructive due to heavy partying, breaking of furniture in common areas, vomiting where partying in the common areas and leaving trash where it doesn't belong. I prefer patronizing hotels, and small inns. Those owners have to make a living also.

jvb, doing what you prefer is valid and appropriate.

Tim, making it sound like all short term rentals are illegal and the source of vomit and wild parties is not valid.

I've been the owner of a couple of short term rental units for about 7 years. There has been some wear and tear, but never has there been vandalism. Surprisingly, nothing has been broken other than a wine glass. My maintenance amounts to touching up the paint on the narrow stairs on occasion.

The are also entirely legal with the registration, book keeping, etc in conformance with local laws. The Condo Association levies a higher fee on commercial properties and so my little business improves the upkeep of the building to a greater degree than that paid by the other owners.

Judging by the fact that the other owners and tenants warmly greet us when we are in town, i suspect that on average they don't have any gripes. But i do recognize a responsibility to be a good neighbor and if I ever had a guest that didnt follow the rules I would not hesitate to throw him out on the spot and repair any damage they may have caused to the common areas. But in 7 years and about 2500 guest nights, that hasn't been the case.

I have no reason to believe that this isn't the case with most such rentals.

There are places like Paris where the regulations are tight and I hope those regulations are strictly enforced. There is no excuse for law breaking.

The final issue, raising property value. That's a matter of perspective. Most Americans want the value of their home to increase. You don't? You would rather have a home that is worth no more today than it was when you purchased it 20 years ago? Despite having paid interest on a mortgage those 20 years? If that's your attitude, if you own a home, then when time comes to sell it, don't sell it at market rate, sell it at a "fair" rate. What ever that means. In my building at least, more than 50% are owners. Tell them its a bad thing that the place is worth more. I cant afford to live on Central Park, and I'm not complaining.

James E it sounds like you are a very responsible owner. Where I own, the AirBnB units have owners that do not live locally. We had to crack down and require a local manager that can respond to problems.

A downside of AirBnB is taking away units once rented to persons who live and work in the area. It's limiting housing and causing the rents to be out of reach for workers. Affordable housing in SF is nonexistent for those nontech workers that work in the city.

The AirBnb site allows owners to list a place as appropriate for parties and events or not. They also have a place (on the site) which an owner can list rules. Anyone who is concerned about noise etc should visit the site of the rentals and see what it says. then write the owner and ask that the rules be tightened.

But to equate all of AirBnb with one bad owner just isnt fair or logical. AirBnb is made up of thousands of owners from all over the world. Most I am sure would want to know that the tenants are making a problem and would move to solve it immediately.

As for the effect on a community or property values and locals access to housing, these problems all existed almost everywhere before AirBnb was heard of. Before AirBnb there were the Gay couples renovating older houses in dicey areas and driving up property values, then there was the buy and flip craze (same issues) There will always be something. AirBnb is just the target of the moment.

And as for preferring small hotels and inns. They are nice. And the smart ones are listing rooms on AirBnb too. And when was the last time anyone here ever asked a small or large hotel if their fire extinguisher license or food license or any other license they have to get was up to date? My guess is never. And that is how I see the registration number issue in Paris. This is a local zoning/permit issue between the city/State and the owners.

And just for clarification of the law. To the best of what I read the Paris regulation is aimed squarely and only at the owners requiring them to have a registration number. That law says nothing about MY ability to rent as I see fit. I as the renter have no legal obligation to ensure that any given owner has a registration number. So people should not worry about "breaking the law".

AirBnb to me is a great idea that works, it has struck a huge chord in the marketplace, hundreds of thousands of folks are responding to it and having pretty great experiences if the reviews on site and my own experience and others I talk to are any indication. It is here to stay.

Good post Tim and likely with limited impact on folks eager to rent such units.

Where I own, the AirBnB units have owners that do not live locally. We
had to crack down and require a local manager that can respond to
problems

jvb, Thanks, but I'm probably no better and no worse than the average short term rental owner.

And I don't live local to my units. As for your crack down. That is excellent. Property owners should control their investments in the manner they think most appropriate. And everyone should respect those decisions. That's a form of grass roots democracy and it generally yields the most appropriate results.

But did you consider if you let the short term rental people run rampant that it might drive values down and make the places more affordable to low income workers?

Heck, we should first establish what the fair value of our neighbors property is and then do everything in our power to drive the value down to that number ... for the greater good! First, we need a central planning authority to establish values, failing that we should confiscate the properties and distribute them fairly.

Do you realize that there are some greedy couples that own homes more suitable for large families? How do we stop that? But we must!

Okay, it's all absurd, but, honestly, who draws the line and where? It is a good discussion worthy of debate.

In the mean time short term rentals make travel more affordable and open new insight in travel. Odd confession: I travel a lot and have never stayed in one .... other than my own.

A) OP: "All the places were registered" - with whom, and is it mentioned in the ads?

B) In fairness, you can contact the owner before booking and ask for the street locale.

C) Depending on the country/city, a good deal of rentals are not true 'holiday' rentals. Many times it is a person moving out to their boyfriends/girlfriends place for the duration of your stay. A friend of mine once rented an apartment in Vermont only to have the owner return twice during the week to pick up some items. Avoid any owner who has a habit of cancelling.

D) "Before AirBnb there were the Gay couples renovating older houses in dicey areas and driving up property values" - please provide me some contact information, I'll try get them to move into my area.

E) I rented twice through Airbnb, both times turned out to be pleasant experiences. Airbnb is now asking for a copy of my passport to make further bookings, which I refuse to give. There are apparently property owners who have no problem with Airbnb infringing on my privacy.

AirBnB can't be blamed for the behaviour of some of its renters, any more than the hotels on the Gold Coast (near where I live) can be blamed for the excesses of their customers, some of whom make the lives of nearby residents sheer hell, particularly during 'schoolies'.

Horror stories exist to make all forms of holiday accommodation sound dodgy, mostly because some people seem to think that, while they're on holiday, they can behave like animals. Back when I was a young parent and taking the kids to European family resorts, I was often appalled by the transformation some made from mother/father into drunken lout - within 12hrs of arriving.

But at the end of the day, I can only make a judgement based on my own experiences of holiday home rental and they have been almost universally positive. We take on board the advice and requests from owners, who often implore guests to remember there are full-time residents next door or above them, so please keep noise down. From what I've seen and heard, AirBnB guests are no more likely to be noisy than any other type of holiday maker.

I use airbnb a lot, and have since 2011 - all our 5 stays last year on our holiday were at airbnb's. We generally skew more towards the private room in a home vs a whole apartment.

As for the passport thing - well, airbnb and the people renting to YOU want to know that you've been verified. I even had to send couchsurfing an officially recognized form of ID - I can't recall whether it was my passport or driver's license. Do you have issues with letting hotels take your passport and make a copy like they do in Italy? Here's what one host had to say "As a host, verification is really important to us. These people are staying in our home."

Everyone has their own level of comfort. I don't mind giving airbnb my info because I want hosts to know they can trust who is coming to their home, but it most likely will be a cold day in hell before I have an Amazon Echo or Google Home in my house...yeah...I'm weird...lol. Then again - everything is so connected now - that's why when I was browsing airbnb's for our upcoming trip, they popped up on facebook ads. I looked at places on Trip Advisor and Expedia and Booking.com - and all popped up as ads on my feed.

Brad - how would you feel about letting 'unverified' people stay at your rental? I'd hazard a guess you're more comfortable with someone being verified...or maybe not...

AirBnB can't be blamed for the behaviour of some of its renters,

well they are.
http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/travel/airbnb-landlord-hit-with-record-fine-in-amsterdam/news-story/f166b6970119574b0f87d5576f7f5644

Actually in that story the owner and the management company were held responsible, not AirBnb (unless i misunderstood something). Any time anyone doing anything breaks the law; they should be held responsible. That's a good thing.

sometimes the landlord is not so nice.
http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/woman-shoved-down-stairs-by-airbnb-host-for-checking-out-late/news-story/f42e15c8575e9dcb434ea916d8efce62

You got me on this one. Never has a hotel employee assaulted a guest. Never! Except once i guess: http://www.kvue.com/article/news/crime/hotel-worker-accused-of-sexually-assaulting-hotel-guest/121207095

rents get increased.

Is that really what is going on or is that just a symptom? I think what is going on is that property values are increasing. In the Netherlands 69% of the population own their own homes so you would think they would appreciate their home values going up. But maybe that 69% isn't the right kind of people? In Hungary its an amazing 86%.

I'm still a big fan of self determination. If the citizens of a community want to regulate housing I have absolutely no problem with it and if I visit I will be careful to not be doing anything contrary to the law. Doesn't necessarily mean i think they are right; but its their homes in their towns and their country so who am i to complain.

This AirBnb debate goes on a lot here and I wonder how many that are criticizing AirBnb are actual customers? At least it seems that many have not stayed at AirBnb from the posts I read. (and not just in this thread but in the others on this subject too) My comments here are not aimed at any one in particular but are general observations of the many AirBnb threads I have read.

I find it curious that something like AirBnb raises such hackles among a vocal few. Again it's my guess but it seems that many of those that criticize AirBnb here and are actively trying to harm their business by trying to convince others not to stay there are really responding to local political issues regarding the issue of Short term rentals in their own hometowns. In essence then that is bringing that political issue into the forum. I understand your concerns and support your right to shape your own community in a democratic way but is it fair to affect others communities through your actions?

I am also struck by the fact that several of those that write critically of AirBnb also do so of Uber. I am still a bit perplexed by that pairing.

Criticizing AirBnb for the acts of a few of their clients or owners seems to miss the point. The issue is badly behaved people...not AirBnb. I used to own a hotel in a popular resort area in SE Asia and I can tell you there are plenty of Badly behaved hotel guests. I have stories that would truly horrify you.

My guess is AirBnb is so successful and has so very many satisfied customers precisely because most of their customers ARE WELL behaved and take care of the homes they are visiting and AirBnb is responding to a market that is strong and growing.

I would have much less problem with the criticism I read of AirBnb if it was based on Customer visits by the authors rather than what I suspect may be simply a personal view borne out of hometown issues. I understand those concerns but is what is happening in your town really relevant to Athens or Istanbul, Paris or Sofia? And should whats written here affect good honest folks just trying to make an extra buck and get ahead on the other side of the world because someone here dislikes AirBnb in THEIR town?

I just think there is a fairness issue here. If you have actually stayed in an AirBnb and have a gripe...lets hear it for sure. But I think one should be careful to not blast an entire company, it's clients and individual owners over essentially local issues someplace else.

aarthurperry the other amusing thing is that AirBnb has become the Kleenex of short term rentals. Its a brand and what they are really objecting to is a movement towards alternative travel accommodations and gentrification.

I have had roughly 2,000 guests over the years and they have been incredibly respectful of my property and of the rules. Damage has been almost non-existent and vandalism has never occurred. I haven't receive a single complaint for the others in the building either. A lot of the old owners have benefited wildly from the increased property value and have benefited in the quality of their retirement. The ones that stay appreciate my repainting the front every couple of years. I don't do it out of kindness, i do it maintain the quality of the image of my places for the sake of business. Responsible capitalism touches many in positive ways.

What is the impact of short term rentals via Airbnb and similar on communities? Some paint a rosy picture and the good that capitalism offers. However, not all impacts are positive. Just do a bit of reading.

"What is the impact of short term rentals via Airbnb and similar on communities? Some paint a rosy picture and the good that capitalism offers. However, not all impacts are positive. Just do a bit of reading."

Even better, do your own research by actually using AirBnB a few times, preferably many, as I have done. In the course of which I have engaged with AirBnB staff, other guests, hosts and neighbours. I will put these experiences ahead of internet chatter any day.

As others have said, if you have personal experience, please share. If not, you're just propagating the bias of others, in support of your own. Sure there are individual horror stories, as there are for hostels, motels, hotels, resorts, campsites and 'conventional' B&Bs. Extrapolating a few stories into a blanket condemnation kinda suggests a personal agenda is in play.

Have stayed in nearly 10 AirBnb properties. All in Europe. All excellent.

Mostly private rooms in peoples homes with an occassional flat, apartment. Couple of owners have become life time friends. As noted above you need to do your reasearch.

My rule of thumb is at least 12-15 positive reviews, that the persons picture not their pet, generic photo (flower or tree, etc) or iconic image such as the Effiel Tower is on the profile. I then establish a “conversation” with the “owner,” asking specific questions. For example flights of stairs, washer/dryer, traffic, shower, close to train tracks, closest bus stop, Market, etc. Once I’ve found out some info about the host from these “ conversations “ then I book.

Each place I’ve stayed has been exactly like the photos. A couple even better. Only one instance of WiFi not working and owner did everything to get it repaired in a timely fashion.

Love the concept of AirBnb and have thoroughly enjoyed my host and hostesses.

A post above comments that condemning AirBnB is like "having a personal agenda at play". Is that anything like having "a personal opinion"?

I have not said anything on the debate but will do now.
Airbnb has moved several miles from it's intended purpose i.e allowing folk to rent out their spare rooms to visitors to their area,this was ok and worked well ,still does in most cases but now that Airbnb allow whole flats and properties to be let on short term basis this is now causing major problem ,Whole businesses have sprung up renting through the company and many of these to the detriment of local people. trying to actually rent in many places is very difficult due to the lack of longer term rental spaces as so many are taken up by airbnb rental, why get £600 -£1000 a month for a 2 bedroom flat in Edinburgh when you can get that or more weekly through Airbnb. Also many apartment areas are suffering from the constant movement of people in and out of these apartments, much more wear and tear on common facilities and excess rubbish produced, also noise and disturbance when folk are trying to sleep.
There was an airbnb rental in the apartment block I live in (I own my apartment),it caused major disturbance for about 2 years with folk coming and going all times of the day and night and mess left by guests.the whole lot came to a head about 2 years ago when 12 Italian guys aged 20-25 were renting a one bedroom flat for a week.Complete havoc, police being called, mess included faeces in the stairwell, ,electronic door entry system wreaked,damage to common walls and the communal garden trashed. we managed eventually to prove with the help of lawyers that the place was being used as a commercial property which was not allowed under the missives of the purchase agreement, but it cost myself and the other owners a considerable amount of money to get that sorted, there is still damage to the common areas. The flat is lying un-let at the moment and hopefully the owner will sell so someone can actually live in the place.
Airbnb.................. no thanks.

Offering up short term rentals in desirable locations via the Internet is a brilliant idea and now very popular both with property owners and tourists. And yes, it’s good advice to conduct some research and experience staying in short term rentals to then be able to offer a balanced perspective on the concept and reality of it. Have I stayed in short term rentals, relied on “internet chatter” and possibly have a “personal agenda” behind the scenes? Well, I have happily stayed in several short term rentals, including one earlier this month. Tick. As for reading more about the impact of Airbnb and similar, it’s easy to find news stories (not fake) about the positive and negative impacts of short term rentals. Tick. I don’t own short term rentals (other posters?), have never had a negative experience with the short term rentals I’ve used, but can appreciate not only the positive economic values short term rentals provide but am realistic about actual significant negative impacts in some communities as well. Tick.

They are dangerous or not as advertised

If you compare reviews of Short Term Rentals against Hotel reviews I think you will see in general terms one is no worse than the other.

They do harm to communities

This statement couldn't be true unless the world was one homogenous mass. If that were true, why travel.

First accept Paris has different dynamics than Zagreb and discuss one or the other.

It's not fair to renters being driven out of the center of major
cities.

What is fair is up to the citizens of that community to decide. I'm not going to presuppose I understand a city better than their residents do. It's just not a simple question and to treat it as a simple question is nothing new than the recital of political dogma.

AirBnb breaks the law

Well they shouldn't, and they should be punished, and are, when they do.

Oh, and as stated several times in this thread, I own a short term rental, but personally prefer to stay in hotels.

Unclegus has an excellent explanation of the short term rental issue. And his "12 Italian guys" sound like the people who were renting a particular house a couple of blocks from me 2 summers ago. While we weren't affected, the immediate neighbors were, and it became part of the overall issue of regulating STRs in this city, which has since occurred. I have stayed in a few STRs/AirBnB's in Canada and France, and will again do so next month. But they've all been in small villages, which has been less of an issue.

As an AirBnb listed (as well as several others) property owner I get sufficient value from the arrangement to be pleased. I don't really care how much they make. I don't get jealous of the fortune of others. I worry about my own affairs. If they didn't provide value then people would stop using them and another platform would have the business. Actually, there are a half dozen good platforms and they compete for my business, which keeps the arrangements profitable for me. There is a word for this sort of business philosophy, but it escapes me right now ...

Once again what I am reading here are complaints about badly behaving People. (from Unclegus) These kinds of people use all kinds of accommodations not just AirBnb. Trying to paint the entire short term rental business and targeting AirBnb with the bad behaviour of a few customers is just:

A. Unfair
B. Illogical
C. Highly suspect to be a personal agenda. Or a paid for posting.

I had a long conversation this afternoon with the owner of the AirBnb where I am currently staying in St Micheal's MD. He has 5 small houses in this very tourist oriented historic town. He has been renting his places since the 1990's before there was an AirBnb. And he told me today that in all that time he has never had anything stolen, no major breakage and people have been respectful and careful of his houses and his neighbors. He rents houses that are historic in their own right some built in the mid 1700's. They are filled with antiques and artwork.

It is my personal opinion that this is by far and away the norm for this kind of rental accommodation based on what I hear not only on this site but from the AirBnb owners I have connected with in my plans for my trip to Europe.

I do believe that much of the criticism of AirBnb is borne of a desire to hurt their business because of a personal agenda formed in the critics own town/city and possibly from internet stories not from personal experience. To my mind this is just not fair to the owners of the rentals or to your fellow travelers who might have a great experience if not unfairly scared away by such rhetoric.

And do not for a moment discount the Hundreds of Millions of dollars being lost by the large hotel chains and the propaganda and disinformation put out by them to hurt this new business model and regain some of that lost revenue. As a former hotel owner (of a medium sized boutique hotel) I could hire any number of companies to flood forums, Trip Advisor and other social media outlets with positive reviews of my property and negative propaganda of my competition. This goes on all the time and is why I am skeptical of some of the form the complaints about AirBnb take here.

My advice for anyone looking to use AirBnb...go do it. Make up your own mind.

aarthurperry, it may be the hotels or other business pressures working against the short term rentals. But i think its more of well meaning but misguided political agenda. The biggest complaint is that people of limited means can no longer live in the neighborhoods that they want to live in. That attitude favors the renter over the owner. Most of the owners are long term residents and the argument is that they should sacrifice the value of their homes for the betterment of their fellow, less fortunate citizens "From those with ability to those with need" (did i quote that correctly?) If that is the value system of a community then they should pursue it. But that doesn't make it universally correct. If it were, then I want my Park Avenue address!

"Make up your own mind."....True, one has that right and that freedom, ie, freedom of choice. It's up to the individual to decide. I've decided...boycott Airbnb. My accommodations in Europe range from an university or hostel dorm room, a small hotel to a 4 star

Fred, how do you feel about Hotels.com?

@ James....Is that like booking.com? I used Hotel.com once (I think) domestically some years ago. I only use booking.com when I use a 3rd party.

Booking.com, Fred, my friend, perfect! Since you detest AirBnb my place is listed on Booking.com as well. The point, not for you Fred, but for the others; is this isn't about AirBnb. By the way, when are you going to be out that way again. I just bought tickets last night. We arrive home May 2nd after a few days in Ukraine shopping. Would have gone sooner but its been a good year and I couldn't find a vacancy in my own home.

The James and Fred conversation is instructive; I think it shows that some of the complaints are based not on actual experience but also maybe in a complete misunderstanding of how the AirBnb/short term rental business works. Many owners like James list their properties on multiple platforms...but are being boycotted on only 1 platform? AirBnb? Again I raise the argument that so much of this is just illogical.

AirBnb has more safeguards for the renter than any site I know of for booking short term rentals, certainly more than Booking.com or the other aggregators and it is the only site, to my knowledge, that allows owners to RATE GUESTS. Which is one reason why AirBnb Hosts have so few problems with their guests.

I just think any Logical and open minded consideration of the facts both economic and socially of the short term rental business and AirBnb in particular leads one to conclude that it is a great deal for customers and Hosts and the communities in which they exist.

"I just think any Logical and open minded consideration of the facts both economic and socially of the short term rental business and AirBnb in particular leads one to conclude that it is a great deal for customers and Hosts and the communities in which they exist." Well, may I file a minority report? The wildly popular short term rental business via Airbnb and other firms is a clever and efficient way to allocate accommodations for tourists and it's understandable why so many posters are gushing praise. If there is an oversupply of housing in a market, it seems a perfect fit. If there is a shortage of housing in a market, especially housing meeting the needs of families with modest incomes, there are consequences that are not all positive. End of minority report.

I'm not a basher of Air BnB, and in fact have used it several times. But I agree wholeheartedly with what Bruce said/

one reason why AirBnb Hosts have so few problems with their guests.

I agree that AirBnB has plenty of protections for hosts and guests, which is good as long as hosts care. Yet despite such protections, one house in my neighborhood had horrendous problems with several guests 2 Summers ago (horrendous for neighbors at least, since the owners weren't present). Maybe the owners just didn't care as long as they got a substantial amount of rental income for their "party house."

To the Minority report, I fully understand your concerns but to lay the property shortage and rising rents in a place like Whitefish MT on AirBnb is missing the real issues of why those values are rising and shortages happening.

Whitefish is a resort town with a Capital R. Montana and Whitefish have long been the destination for the rich and famous to build homes and live/vacation. The popularity of your area has increased hundredfold in the last 20 years. Hundreds of articles from the New York Times to every travel magazine has run features on the area and it's charms. This has brought many more tourists and wealthy residents. That in turn brings growth and more workers needing housing. Prices rise. Values increase. Shortages happen.

But AirBnb and the short term rental market is a very small part of that big picture. Also Many AirBnb's are in expensive luxury houses and condos. The sort the average Joe with a job at the ski lift just isnt in the market for anyway.

The forces creating these shortages and rising costs and their concurrent values are much larger than the Short tern Rental Market.

And again I think it unfair to try to persuade people against staying in an AirBnb in Europe because you perceive them to be a problem in your town.

I've lived in a a touristy area for twenty years. The problems people talk about with Air BnB are nothing new; ABnB has merely amplified what was already going on. When we moved down here, we lived a block from the beach for a couple of years. Our long term rental building was adjacent to a short term rental building, and it's no fun when the temporary neighbors are having a loud party until 1:00am when you have to get up at 6:00am for work the next day. When we bought a house, we bought decidedly inland from the beach in an area where property covenants ban short term rentals (common rules in many communities here since the 1970s and 1980s) and I would be quite cross to discover the short term renters setting up another 1:00am pool party a few feet from my bedroom.

I've known a lot of beach condo and beach house owners down here. About 95-98% of the time, rentals are uneventful save for the occasional broken cheap wine glass. But there are also any number of times when things go wrong from cops called over a loud high school beer bash with no over-21s present to contraband pets who pee all over the unit to general mayhem, destruction and theft. (Why would someone steal a mattress pad and two pillows?) There are also affluent parents who will offer up a $10-$20K security deposit for their college kids to rent there and trash the place. (For some property owners who were looking to remodel anyways, it can actually be an okay arrangement)

I also don't like that ABnB disregards local laws and statutes and doesn't even try to police its hosts who are in flagrant violation of those rules. They're pushing the impacts of their 'sharing economy' to neighbors who share none of the benefits of it and often incur additional negative effects from it.

As stated above, the prospective guest will presumably weigh the factors on Airbnb and make up his own mind, which he is entitled to. Should I be asked on those super rare occasions for my view of Airbnb, I won't give an impartial opinion but every piece of negative evidence. If that's unfair, that is irrelevant, let the prospective guest continue the research. But then I am hardly ever asked.

selkie, every comment is valid. But not every situation is like yours. I guess the exception would be to pit all the blame on AirBnb. It is like blaming a newspaper for misleading classified ads. AirBnb is little more than an advertisement broker. I am in favor of condo covenants and zoning laws that reflect the desires of the owners. I am also in favor of holding the owners and renters accountable. I imagine beach locations can attract trouble. Not sure if the same is true of flats in Paris ... but I could see it in Prague. That's why local control and governance are so important; and why generalizations don't work.

Fred, forgive me for my wicked ways. But do know I have never paid for a short term rental. I prefer hotels.

@ James...my compliments on your eloquence on "my wicked ways." Well, admittedly I stayed at a short term rental once, 4 nights in the summer of 2001 in Warsaw. That was in the pre-Airbnb days. Staying there was all right, quite satisfactory. Besides, I wasn't calling the shots then, the Mrs was. She handled the whole thing.

Fred, you know when we bought the first place I had never heard of short term rentals. It was just gong to be for our use. Then a few years later someone suggested we rent it. We found a managment company that said they could handle it for us. Then I was certain that the repairs and complaints and horror stories like are being said here would put an end to it very quickly. Amazingly, we haven't had any of it in about 7 years now. Still, when i travel short term rentals aren't really my style. Ironic, huh?

I also don't like that ABnB disregards local laws and statutes and doesn't even try to police its hosts who are in flagrant violation of those rules. They're pushing the impacts of their 'sharing economy' to neighbors who share none of the benefits of it and often incur additional negative effects from it.

This misunderstanding keeps coming up despite many attempts here to set it straight.

AirBnb has NO legal relationship with local municipalities and their zoning regulations. The AirBnb platform is a "meeting place" where those having accommodation and those seeking it can find each other. AirBnb has NO legal obligation to try to regulate what people do in their towns and how they comply or not with local laws. Obeying any given law..and keep in mind we are talking about zoning regulations here not criminal law, is up to the person in that city with property that is subject to those regulations.

Therefore AirBnb is not breaking any laws. Therefore they are perfectly right in disregarding those laws as the zoning regulations are actionable only on property owners in a given jurisdiction.

It is not up to nor is it desirable on any level for private companies to become law enforcers for city zoning regulations which are at best a convoluted and complicated mess in most places not fully understandable to even the LOCALS who have to enforce them at times.

As for sharing none of the benefits, up-thread is a very good post about all of the benefits brought to the neighborhood by the short term rental economy, to it's stores and businesses and the rise in property values which does benefit many.

Mrs Wife and I plan to move when we retire, in a year or so. We hope to move to a region a couple of hours away, which we have visited many times, popular with tourists.

However, I am doing my research very carefully, on the basis that some areas take in a lot of tourists while others remain mostly residential. One or two towns are pretty much overrun in summer yet, just a few miles away, there are small towns and villages that remain quiet and peaceful, off the tourist map.

Of course I'm avoiding the busy holiday spots, beautiful though they are, because I know what it would be like trying to 'live' among holidaymakers. It's easy to figure out where these hotspots are. Of course, even the quiet little villages contain a handful of B&Bs or rental cottages, but I also know that the folks staying there aren't the party types, who mostly head to the beaches a few miles away.

Just call me a genius.

Ahhhhh, but when tourists get burned out with the crowded places they will move to your new neighborhood.

As for AirBnb, there are situations where it would be obvious that they are facilitating illegal activity and in those situation they have stepped up to self regulate or have been compelled to do so; Paris for example. And that's a good thing.

We have found that if you go to the city's website where you want to stay (in our case it was Ehrwald, Austria) the same listing that is on AirBnB or Booking.com can be found on the city's site for CHEAPER. However, that is not always a plus; for example, when it came time to pay, our host wanted us to transfer money to a particular account, which we were NOT comfortable with, we wanted to use something more secure. Also, AirBnB offered a better cancellation policy than the host himself (strangely enough) so we opted to pay a little more on AirBnB. Peace of mind was worth the extra money!

It is not up to nor is it desirable on any level for private companies to become law enforcers for city zoning regulations which are at best a convoluted and complicated mess in most places not fully understandable to even the LOCALS who have to enforce them at times.

It's simple in many areas- no rental stays of less than X number of days. If a company claims it's 'too hard' to comply with local housing law, then they shouldn't be in business. Ignorance of the law is no excuse.

As for sharing none of the benefits, up-thread is a very good post about all of the benefits brought to the neighborhood by the short term rental economy, to it's stores and businesses and the rise in property values which does benefit many.

What benefit would I get from people tossing red Solo Cups in my backyard? Or the cops out here at 2:00am to shut down a loud pool party? Or a change in the make up of local shopping centers that shift from businesses things that are actually useful to yet more t-shirt and swimsuit shops? (Though the 'Came on vacation, left on probation' beer mugs you can find at the t-shirt shops do tend to be big hits at parties with white elephant gift exchanges) I'm trying to think of businesses down here that exist because of the tourists and the only one I regularly visit is Whole Foods.

"What benefit would I get from people tossing red Solo Cups in my backyard? Or the cops out here at 2:00am to shut down a loud pool party? Or a change in the make up of local shopping centers that shift from businesses things that are actually useful to yet more t-shirt and swimsuit shops? (Though the 'Came on vacation, left on probation' beer mugs you can find at the t-shirt shops do tend to be big hits at parties with white elephant gift exchanges) I'm trying to think of businesses down here that exist because of the tourists and the only one I regularly visit is Whole Foods."

None of which can be laid at the door of AirBnB. That kind of behaviour can be found in motels, hotels, campsites, holiday resorts, cruises ...

In other words, some holidaymakers act like total idiots and don't give a rat's wotsit about residents living nearby. Singling out AirBnB as the only accommodation provider that caters for 'the mob' is unfair and patently incorrect.

None of which can be laid at the door of AirBnB. That kind of behaviour can be found in motels, hotels, campsites, holiday resorts, cruises ...

All of which have very specific locations where they are allowed and not allowed within the community. The sharing economy does not respect that those boundaries were put in place for a reason.

Interesting article on the downside of AirBnB: http://www.finehomesandliving.com/When-Your-Neighbors-are-Tourists-The-Problem-with-AirBnB/

AirBnB is part of the problem when they allow listings by hosts not following the local ordinances for short term rentals.

All of which have very specific locations where they are allowed and
not allowed within the community. The sharing economy does not respect
that those boundaries were put in place for a reason.

Amen! Zoning regulations should be decided in a democratic process by members of the community that live in a locale full-time, not by venture capitalists in California.

THIS IS FUN

If someone calls Roto Rooter and the technician assults the home owner; you mean NBC is liable because Roto Rooter advertised on NBC? Should CBS be held liable because Terminix broke a local law concerning permissible pesticides? That would be the logical conclusion of holding AirBnb accountable for most issues concerning short term rentals.

Now if 75% of the NYC Apartments listed on AirBnb are in violation of the local laws of NYC, then with that great a number I guess you could make a good argument that AirBnb is aiding and abetting misdemeanor civil law criminals. The city should crack down on the owners and fine them to the fullest extent of the law; and if a case can be made, the AirBnb should pay too.

I suspect that most localities have public nuisance laws that could be used to close units that whose renters habitually disrupt the area; and I suspect at some point the owners of the apartments could be held liable under current law.

But come on. These aren’t the real issues. The one central theme that keeps coming up is how come you make your property so valuable that I can’t afford to live in it. That’s a purely political issue. We should start another thread where we discuss what is a fair long term rental cost for an apartment on 5th Avenue. Most of Europe has remarkable high home ownership rates so those that can’t afford the rent are probably in the minority. Do you ask why so few cities and communities have enacted laws to drive AirBnb out? It’s because the home owners in the area generally haven’t been inconvenienced to an extent greater than the benefits that tourism has brought. But if they do vote; it should be respected.

If someone calls Roto Rooter and the technician assults the home
owner; you mean NBC is liable because Roto Rooter advertised on NBC?
Should CBS be held liable because Terminix broke a local law
concerning permissible pesticides? That would be the logical
conclusion of holding AirBnb accountable for most issues concerning
short term rentals.

This is exactly what New York State did by banning Airbnb from advertising entire unoccupied apartments for less than 30 days. (https://tinyurl.com/y7yuy6h5)
Thanks for proving my point.

If the law holds up in court, then it should obeyed. I am a supporter of legal process. But again, even this law isn't about the inconvenience of Short Term rental neighbors, it's about rent control and social engineering. But, hey, that's their choice. In time those places may look like run down Soviet block houses because no one wanted to invest in the upkeep of a poor investment. Interesting too, that only AirBnb is targeted. Maybe the Mayor has invested in Bookings.com or one of the other half dozen listing platforms? 😂

James E., AirBnB’s own terms of service say hosts must follow their locale’s laws and regulations regarding short term rentals. By signing up for their service, a host certifies they are following local and state regulations. In AirBnB’s terms of service, a host can be delisted if they fail to do so. When AirBnB fails to take down listings they know are in violation, AirBnB is part of the problem. AirBnB has evolved into more than a mere advertising platform as they offer other services such as a secure way for payments and also insurance.

My concerns are the same whether the short term rental is listed by VRBO/Home Away, booking.com or another service. If the hosts are not following the local laws and it is reported to VRBO, etc., then that company should delist it.

"The Sharing Economy" is a term being bandied about here mostly pejoratively. Lets be clear. There is no "Sharing" in the traditional sense with either AirBnb, Uber or any other similar platform. You pay for a service and you get something in return.

It stuns me how some can lay the bad behaviour of a very very few individuals at the door of just ONE platform and smear it constantly on that basis trying to convince others they should not stay in an AirBnb.

And I am perplexed even more by those that do not understand or wish to ignore the fact that AirBnb is not breaking any laws. The laws on the books are actionable only on the owners who more than likely have their property listed with multiple platforms.

Yet another completely perplexing thing is how do those complaining about bad behaviour know what platform the miscreants booked with? The short answer...you dont.

So why do they continue to single out AirBnb?

And lest we forget...there are hundreds of millions of dollars being lost by the large hotel chains every year due to the Short term rental business and THEY are the ones that have the keys to city hall and the ears of those in local power. This is a David and Goliath fight. Follow the money and you will find the folks that want AirBnb out of the way...and if they win...we as consumers lose once again. And by acting as their unwitting agent in trying to discredit AirBnb you only hurt yourselves in the long run.

Work hard to make all the laws you feel necessary in your own communities. That is the democratic American way and I am all for that. But please don't try to affect other communities and people you don't even know by, in my view, unfairly and mistakenly targeting the wrong source of your problem.

The other short term rental companies that operate in my area respect local zoning laws and won't list properties in locations that ban short term rentals. They also generally enforce a minimum age of 25 rentals, which cuts down on some of the part house problems. But every so often, you get someone or a group that slips through the attempts to keep it quiet and respectable and you get this:

http://weartv.com/news/local/spring-break-chaperon-busted-for-house-party-drugs-and-alcohol

(lest anyone thing I was exaggerating some of the problems we have down here)

Now tell me what value those kind of short term guests add to the quiet enjoyment of my home and neighborhood?

So why do they continue to single out AirBnb?

I think it's probably because Air BnB is by far the biggest in the field of STRs, and basically revolutionized that field. Also, people often use "Air BnB" as a shorthand for the STR issue as a whole.

There are actually several dozen short term rental companies in my area. Some of them have cheerfully been following local laws for 30+ years at this point rather than saying 'not my problem'.

How's this for irony? I just got back from a weekend in Canberra, where we rented an apartment through AirBnB. The apartment itself was fine, but our weekend was spoiled somewhat due to noisy neighbours, who were RESIDENTS. The biggest problem was a guy two doors away who, for some reason, felt we should all enjoy his choice of music late into the evening. He ensured this by leaving his front door open. A family living beneath us spent most of their time arguing on their balcony. All in all, a lousy weekend, accommodation-wise. The ear plugs came in very handy at bedtime!

Conversely, my wife and I were super-respectful and quiet. Hosts often say they don't know we're there.

You have to wonder if those neighbours were being deliberately noisy to make the AirBnB guests unwelcome.

"You have to wonder if those neighbours were being deliberately noisy to make the AirBnB guests unwelcome."

That's possible I suppose, though of course neither of us can know. Having observed the people in question first-hand however, I would bet a week's salary that they are just noisy people with little regard for their neighbours, permanent or temporary.

How do you know the neighbors weren't AirBnb guests? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

"How do you know the neighbors weren't AirBnb guests? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm"

Easy. The apartment we rented is the only one in the building listed by AirBnB or any other holiday letting site.

Do you really trust AirBnb that much? Maybe it was a secret listing??? They do that you know.....

"Do you really trust AirBnb that much? Maybe it was a secret listing??? They do that you know....."

Nah, I'm not paranoid, despite what everybody else thinks.

I once stayed in a hotel in Budapest. The AirBnb people planted a couple on the other side of the courtyard to intentionally give the hotel a bad name by sharing their love with each other and all of the hotels guests; hour after hour after hour.

"I once stayed in a hotel in Budapest. The AirBnb people planted a couple on the other side of the courtyard to intentionally give the hotel a bad name by sharing their love with each other and all of the hotels guests; hour after hour after hour."

Evidence/link please.

I tried, but the webmaster keeps deleting it....

I’m yet to stay in an AirBnB - though I’m booked to stay in plenty, in a few months - but my experiences so far have been excellent.

Two of my bookings, I’d realised I needed to cancel - one id booked for the wrong night, the other I realised was too far from the centre of town and so I wanted to find somewhere a bit closer. In both cases, a full refund was paid back to my credit card within 48 hours. I’m not sure I would have been so lucky with other websites.

I also happen to have an Airbnb next door to my house. I didn’t even realise at first, there hasn’t been any noise - til my flatmate (who was a tad paranoid) noted one day that there seemed to be different people staying there every time he looked. Just on the offchance we checked the Airbnb site and discovered that yep, the next door neighbours was definitely an AirBnb and pretty much fully booked, permanently. Like I said, no extra noise, no parties or disturbances; if anyone has vandalised the interior then it hasn’t affected me so I don’t mind.

Also my workmate rents out his spare room in AirBnb and he reckons it’s a fantastic source of extra income. He’s been doing it for a while now and doesn’t seem to have had any issues, he’s one of the nicest guys you’d ever meet (which is reflected in the fact he has superhost status),

A number of my friends have used Airbnb and all seem to speak very positively. One of my closest friends who is a HUGE fan of going away and staying in Airbnb’s, is also a professional cleaner and guess who accounts for most of her cleaning jobs? And yep, she highly recommends it - though as other people have said, she always checks the ratings very carefully before she books.

Anyway that’s my two cents worth, I really hope Airbnb is as good as I’ve heard as I’ve probably spend several thousand dollars on booking my accomodation thru them for Europe!! Fingers crossed but I think it’ll be a great way to meet some nice people, too :)

Never paid for an AirBnb, but with all these positive statements, it sounds like the way to go....... Naaaa, I like really nice hotels with room service. But I love the concept and what it provides for travelers and property owners....

For nearly 40 years I traveled for work. I always stayed in hotels....except the early China days when the accommodations were bunk houses. I have stayed in the best luxury hotels, rat infested s**t hole hotels, hotels where the "entertainment" would knock on your door every hour or so...you name it, I have stayed in one and more than likely several times..
Now retired and traveling for personal pleasure the last thing that I want is a hotel room...unless it's a really fine one in Hong Kong, in Kowloon, a corner suite overlooking the harbor.........nah, not even that. I love Airbnb. My wife and I have done numerous trips in Europe and we have enjoyed every single accommodation we've rented...the only one that was a bit odd was a single room with bath in Dinant...and that was odd only because the owner was bit off center.... I will continue to rent through Airbnb. Having an apartment with a kitchen, space to do our own thing without having maids wondering through all the time, it works for us.
Just be very careful about how you select your hosts and always establish a dialogue in advance so that you can get a feel for the deal before you lock your plans down. Look for flexible cancellation terms...
I do not miss the feeding hoards at the hotel breakfast buffets...you with the salmon piled an inch deep, yes you, the one in line for your third custom made omelet, the one that just handled each slice of bread and put it back in the basket, you, I don't miss you when I'm sitting in my apartment enjoying a fresh pot of coffee that I don't need to share with anyone except my wife.

We just returned from France and used Air BnB twice in two small towns, for a total of 3 nights. Both places were outstanding, in great locations, and the hosts were fantastic. We generally rent houses for a week at a time, but having Air BnB to help fill in gaps is great. Generally, I dislike staying in hotels, although we do occasionally, and we also occasional stay in a chambre d'hote. But Air BnB just gives another option..

I ran across a less-frequently discussed aspect of AirBnb, one which relates most directly to a newsboard like this. Many posters focus not on their need to house their family affordably, but on imagining their participation in the daily life of the city they are visiting. Raphael Minder, who has been writing about Lisbon for the New York Times since 2010, noted last week (25 May 2018) that there are now eight times as many annual visitors to Lisbon as there are permanent residents. His last paragraphs are quoted below the link:

https://nyti.ms/2GMIDvU

... ...

"She now lives with her daughter on the outskirts of Lisbon, but the short-term rental market aimed at tourists and developed by companies like Airbnb is spreading even there.

"Life in upmarket neighborhoods is being hollowed out. In November, André J---- G----, a Portuguese lawyer, moved into a new apartment with his wife and two children, in a renovated six-story building.

"Three Brazilians and two Angolans own the other apartments, but Mr. J---- G---- said he barely sees them.

"“It’s a first-world problem, but of course this building feels very empty,” he lamented. “It would have been nice to have some other families around us, people with a real stake in the day-to-day issues of living here.”"

I read the original article that Tim quotes. Air BnB does seem to be a particularly serious problem in large cities that are popular with tourists. The 2 AirBnB places I recently stayed at in France were in small towns, and there appeared to be few, if any, other short term rental units in those towns.

As if Europe was some uniform mass? In parts of Europe the AirBnb trend has provided jobs, increased quality of life and a source of retirement funding for pensioners. Blanket statements, good or bad, are just an indication that a person needs to travel more. I have faith that the world's democracies will find what is best for their towns, cities and societies. What is important is that the tourist respect their freedom to decide what is best for them, respect their hosts and the communities that they are visiting.

Where is the proof of what? That not all Europeans are not the same? That all cities are not the same? That not all circumstance in life aren't identical? That stereotypes are generally flawed? Really?

The majority of those signs were anti-tourist, not anti-short term rental. That's a different issue all together. It would be pretty simplistic to conflate the two. I gotta believe that in a democracy, that if those random signs represented the will of the people, that they would have done something to stop tourism by now. Actually, in a lot of cities they have changed the laws to restrict and limit accommodations for tourists; and that's great if its what the citizens want. Its not always as fast as we would all want, but Democracy generally reaches an acceptable conclusion.

Currently in Stockholm at an airbnb. Host lives here. Could not ask for a better situation. In apartment building that my host said he is the only one in the building with the airbnb and I tend to believe him. Heading to Copenhagen next. Same situation ..person lives there and trusts me to feed her cats for a few days when she goes to a festival. Same experience in Oaxaca, Mexico.. Wonderful families that have become my friends. I think the key is to dig deeper in the airbnb offering. For example when I see a host has many properties all over a city that indicates the host is making the concept of airbnb something that doesn't interest me. Also reading ALL the reviews about the setting and interactions and doing research on the location down to "walking "past the location with Google Street View..

cafetista.bruja; some of the best advice yet. But do be aware that there are companies that manage apartments of individual owners. They may appear to be "corporate" but they just provide a meet and greet service, and make sure the maids do a good job and take care of meeting all the regulations. Actually those are the ones I would look for. You get the best of both worlds; professionally run, legal and dependent on good reviews, as well as avoiding the corporate holdings which can be just the opposite and avoiding the occasional renter that does it for what ever spare cash he can get with out a lot of regard for quality. I envy you social skills to stay in rooms in apartments. I think its amazing, but i would always feel like a guest and never get comfortable. But thats my short coming. Like i said, i envy you the opportunity to meet and bond with people.

The best hosts (and this has always been my personal experience )give you privacy and give the option to the guest as to interaction. As my current host told me he needs his space and privacy as well and also in my personal experiences the host would rather have someone who's not terribly needy and is independent which is a description of my travel style.

Maybe someday I will try it. Well, actually, next August I have to board with a family in Ukraine for two weeks. Guess that will be my test.

If only all nightly rentals included on-site owners.

Why.....?????

MN, ouch. Not good. Sort of worse issue when you dont stay in a hotel.

Oh, note I said, "I would", Ive actually never rented an Airbnb or any short term rental. Im spoiled and like nice hotels...

Why have on-site owners for nightly rentals? Because of all the problems of absentee oversight noted above. Perhaps I would have a different perspective if owning nighty rentals and trying to maximize profits.

Bruce, I would sort of think that each situation could have its own set of potential problems; and advantages for prospective renters.

From the owner's perspective the self run place is significantly more profitable as the Owner does all his own work and doesn't have to hire anyone. There are so many possibilities due to locations, tourism, laws, taxes; there cant possibly be a blanket answer.

The few short term rental owners that i am acquainted with are renting out their vacation homes when they themselves are not using them. In that instance, since they don't live there full time, they use a management company. One thing they do have in common is that they love their vacation homes so they keep them well repaired and immaculate. Their profit goals are generally limited to the cost of ownership.. a way to afford a vacation home. But with 9 million short term rentals out there, the dozen or so people i know are pretty anecdotal.

The short term rental argument will never end because its driven by a social ideology and not any set of documented facts or statistics.

JG, well I sure wouldn't want to live there and maybe not stay there. But I'm not going to impose my values on people of another country. Especially since I can't know the bigger picture. I try and only stick to what I know or can reasonably assume and remain open minded on the rest.

I do believe that unless you restrict tourism, banning short term rentals will only replace one problem with another problem. My attitude, best to let the locals make the decisions for themselves and then obey their laws.

“The short term rental argument will never end because its driven by a social ideology and not any set of documented facts or statistics.” The friends complaining to me regarding negative instances of bad behavior by nightly renters in homes without owners/managers present then are surely dreaming?

Bruce, no, its very real. But I don't know if its a trend or if its anecdotal. If you go to the AirBnb or Trip Advisior reviews; a bad experience doesn't seem to be the trend. If it were the trend, then people would stay away and the places would cease to exist. There are only two things i push back on (neither of which i am say apply to you); gross uninformed generalizations and the imposition of one's values on another. I would imagine some short term rentals are good, some not so good, regardless of how they are managed. Capitalism will work that out. I would also imagine that the presence of short term rentals in some neighborhoods, in some cities, is bad for the citizens of the neighborhood as a whole; while in other locates good for the citizens of the neighborhood as a whole.

The question that remains unanswered is what happens if you were to outlaw short term rentals; especially in locations with huge tourist numbers? Glass hotels? Endless lines of tour buses from the suburbs ?? Something will step in to take up the slack. And what will be the impact on employment and income if the tourists are driven away? Before one turns over the apple cart, one should have an understanding of all the implications and a plan to deal with such things.

The comment on ideology has to do with the biggest anti short term rental argument I hear deals with a concept that it displaces people from certain neighborhoods. To alter that you have to accept a concept that a third party has a right to someone else property use at rates the third party can afford to pay. That assumes that a government has the right to take from one of its citizens a portion of the value of that which they own and then give that value to someone else. Its just not a system that i think provides the greater good for society. And the numbers don't really jive for me. Europe has a very high rate of home ownership. 70 to 85% depending one where. Which means no more than 15 to 30% of the population is facing this issue. The other 70 - 85% are getting the benefit of higher property values. Well, all too complex and all to based on the unique values of places i know much to little about for me to get involved with. I trust democracy and i follow the laws of the land and assume they are managing their own lives just fine without my input.

We are at an Airbnb in Salon de Provence right now. We stayed here back in 2015 and Carmen is just the nicest host. We have the run of the kitchen, she tells us to help ourselves to the coffee/tea/beverages, bread/pasta, use the stove. It has a gorgeous bathroom, and the hostess is great to chat with. She has a chalkboard wall and there was the note I left when we stayed 3 yrs ago. I’d never get this degree of interaction in a hotel (of course, if you don’t like interaction...). And the price is hard to beat. $300 Cdn, for 4 nights.

I don’t dislike interaction, I just don’t need interaction. I am a great garage sale shopper. The items may be a little shoddy, there may or may not be interaction, but the prices are irresistible . Hoeever I much prefer shopping at a proper store, just as I love staying at a proper hotel where the interaction is professional and limited.

Nicole, it sounds like you are sharing a house. Is $300 a night considered good value for that area and time of year? ( I never travel in summer).

Norma, we are almost alike. I don't need the interaction, but I envy those who can do it so easily. I would worry about what time I came home and moving something or putting something out of place, or being nice enough or appreciative enough or …. yes, all my hangups. I love staying in a hotel or any situation where I get to choose the level of informality. Sometimes if the chemistry is good, it can be very informal. Worst case, they do their job and I pay as expected.

Gundersen...that’s $300 total for all 4 nights...$75 a night. Canadian. All fees in. I don’t think she changes her prices...it’s what we paid last time in October when we stayed. For me, that’s my comfort level. We stayed at a hotel in Nice the night before that was $130 a night, which is a bit out of my comfort zone (I like the $70-110 range) because of its proximity to the airport. It was nice enough, but just a bed and bathroom. Our upcoming Airbnb in manosque is a small home/cabin type place to ourselves, and it was $195 final total for 3 nights (I did have a $60 credit for referring someone to Airbnb, so it would have been about $255). So $65 a night.

Yes, the owner is here, but she does work. And we have no worries about doing anything wrong or misplacing something because she’s so helpful. Showed us where everything is, how to use the stove. And having to spend 24/7 with my husband..in this heat and humidity...having a friendly face to chat that isn’t his with helps my sanity...lol. I’m just a people person, love getting to know people. And returning here, is like meeting an old friend and catching up - my husband even recalled meeting her daughter and boyfriend last time (which I’d forgotten) who were visiting from Quebec! And now she’s a grandma, so was showing us photos of her grandson.

Not a total plug from me......I'm actually kind of PO'd about Airbnd after a recent experience.
First, I was a strong advocate. My wife and I have done several trips to Europe using only Abb accommodations. In two trips we stayed 50 nights in 14 different places. Our feedback has been totally great and we have always had extremely good experiences everywhere we've stayed. Until our recent trip to Italy we had never had an issue anywhere. Even if we had a problem with accommodation we always addressed it with the owner and we always did it in a courteous way, offline. There was never a situation that warranted giving an owner bad feedback. Issues were always taken care of quickly and without drama.
Until recently.... While staying in Florence we rented an accommodation that had some bazaar Italian branded keurig type coffee maker. We could not figure out what type of coffee brand would work in it and not being familiar with these single service machines (we use Melita or a french press or a Bialetti) we purchased 4 different types of coffee to try and fit the foolish thing. We assumed that there must be some standards for these things but learned otherwise. After four tries I contacted the owner of the place and he responded that there are shops in Florence that sell coffee for these...after looking online, sure enough, there were two of them. The one close to us (a ten minute walk) had gone out of business and the other shop was 30 minutes away by bus. Forgive me but with a grocery store right across the street that sold ground coffee, all kinds of other single service coffees, it struck me as simply stupid to have a coffee maker that you can't buy coffee for. We were in Florence to visit museums, to eat, to look around, not to spend all of our time trying to get a cup of coffee. When we left, we posted positive feedback about the apartment and the owner posted positive feedback about us. I sent him a note outside of Abb and told him how frustrating it had been for us not to be able to make coffee and suggested that he put a Bialetti or some other easy to use coffee maker in his apartment for future guests. I guess I offended him when I made note that had I had the chance I would have thrown the machine into the Arno after the fourth attempt to to buy coffee for it. It was meant tongue in cheek but also out of frustration with our experience, 18 euros spent only to learn that this beast of a machine could only make coffee available from only one place in all of Florence.
His revenge, he sent Abb a negative comment about us as guests. We left his place spotless. We left him positive feedback. And Abb came back to us and said "hey, you folks have a strike against you". "If you get more negative feedback it might affect your ability to make reservations. Hosts might avoid you". At face value that seemed pretty benign, until we realized that there is no way to respond to the "negative" comments from that host. There is no way to respond to Abb about their warning. After over 70 nights with Abb.. we have a ding against us because I told some clown that his coffee maker is useless...did I mention that he lives in Milano??? We were renting in Florence. He could not give a twizzle about our inconvenience.
Lesson learned I suppose. If you use Abb, walk on egg shells because even if you have a sterling record all it takes is one bad comment from a host to send you down the rat hole.

In one city that i am somewhat familiar with at least 75% of the hotels in 3 of the 4 major tourist districts occupy buildings that were once apartment blocks. Should they be returned to apartment blocks (20 years later)? So K&K can take over an entire apartment block, but Joe Blow cant rent one apartment in another apartment block. And for the new hotels, they have to sit on real estate someplace; presumably someplace convenient for tourists. That means tearing down apartment blocks? And do you not think that the income from tourism has increased the standard of living in some cities? Do you want that to revert to what it was prior to tourism (thinking about Eastern Europe here). Not arguing anything is right or wrong, just pointing out that its not a simple issue.

Personally, in my favorite European city, i wish it could revert to where it was 15 years ago with regards to tourism; but i want all the improvements and renovations that tourism brought at the same time. Sort of a Catch 22.

Sorry Nicole, it appears I did not pay attention during the speed reading course I took last year. My limit is also about $110, give or take, depending on the exchange rate. As for sharing a residence, eeeeh, I don't think I'd ever try it. Oh, and Airbnb is asking for a copy of my passport nowadays, not much chance of that either.

Gundersen...the way I look at the passport thing...these people are letting you into their home, so they want to know you are who you are...if I was renting out, I’d be more comfortable knowing the person was vetted.

Staying with strangers isn’t for everyone. We host couchsurfers in our home, so are used to strangers coming and staying, and interacting. We’ve stayed with couchsurfers ourselves and now have some good friends in London and Maine we’ve stayed with multiple times. I keep in touch with maybe 25% of them, and hope to see some again when we are in their neck of the woods. Our hostess last night helped us cook supper (pasta and chicken, which I picked up at the grocery store) and even whipped up a salad to share, and whipped up a pastis for us to try (no, we didn’t like it...like drinking black licorice...nope). And when we came back to her home early because it was so hot, it was nice to have someone to talk to.

I guess for me, this little blurb from the Rick Steves email I got this morning sums it up as my personal travel philosophy...’For me, the mark of a good traveler is how they connect with people. After all, it's meeting the people that creates the most joy, the biggest laughs, and the best travel memories.’

Mack I've learned over the years that humor and/or sarcasm doesn't really travel well. I walk on eggshells even at work dealing with Americans that are in our offices in different states, since a lot of my job involves communicating by instant message with colleagues I've never met. I think I would have just suggested to the host that they keep a supply of the unique coffee packs that their machine requires. I'd consider this to just be an minor inconvenience, similar to a hotel that provides a kettle but forgets to stock the coffee/tea. Of course, with an air BNB, you can't just go to the front desk to request it.

Wonderful, great piece of information. I read your article and then hunted down a few pertaining to Hotels specifically. I'm no attorney, but it appears that when law requires that the hotel collect the data (pretty common), that it is legal to collect the data, the rub is in how the hotel must handle the data after collected. Reading how it must be handled, it is hard to believe that a mom and pop short term rental could comply if it received the information electronically (Email), but fair to believe possible if it remained in paper form (a card filled out on the spot). In the later instance presenting the passport to confirm that the card was filled out properly would seem to me to suffice. For the advance, electronic submission, I suspect one of the the large listing companies will step in at some point and provide a compliant service, like they are currently doing with credit card information (also subject to the act). Life has gotten so complicated.

As for the 20 year old apartment block hotels, no, its an ongoing thing in the city i reference. Its a concept of highest and best value. But i never pretend that its a one size fits all issue. If you read all that I post, its the over generalization that i push back on and in general I dont support or object to short term rentals in a universal way. In the one city I reference tourism lifted so many people out of poverty that any negative affects are negligible; but I have no idea how that would be relevant when discussing Amsterdam for instance. Again, I leave it to the voters to determine their best interest and in places like Paris, Amsterdam and Barcelona they appear to be exercising their rights through more regulation. If the scale tips too far one way or another, they may adjust their thinking like they did in Berlin. Its all good.

"That is very wrong."

Yes, when I tried to book a place earlier this year in South Carolina, my booking would not be processed until I provided a copy of my passport. Maybe it's different for bookings in Europe, I have not tried lately. Given that I had booked through Airbnb twice before, and I would be paying by credit card eight months in advance, not sure why the passport is required.

Back to the game.

Dang good game too..... I love underdogs.....
Could not be happier right now....