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HomeAway, the Airbnb Alternative

MULTIZ321

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The downside of these services is if you're the neighbor in an apartment building, coop or condo and paid a fortune for your apartment and have this stream of strangers moving in and out.

And, did you see the recent story about an Airb&b customers moving into a lady's home and announcing he wasn't going to pay or leave? As he is considered a tenant, there is nothing she can legally do to evict him other than a long and costly legal battle. Once he squatted for a few weeks, he announced he now had eminent domain and owned her home, something else she had to hire a lawyer to deal with. Laws in many states, such as New York, give tenants all the rights and landlords almost none.

Still want to rent your home out to a stranger who signed up with a service on line?

Here's additional info to the story: Airbnb Host Can't Get Rid of Squatter - by Thomas Johnson/ Morning Mix/ TheWashingtonPost.com

"Here’s one big difference between a hotel and Airbnb: If someone rents a hotel room and refuses to leave, the desk calls security and has him thrown out. If someone rents out a place using Airbnb and the “guest” refuses to leave, there’s no desk, no security and sometimes not much recourse.

That’s what Cory Tschogl is finding out..."


Richard
 

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Paris Airbnb Cops Want to Know if Your Rental is Legal - by Helene Fouquet and Ania Nussbaum/ News/ Bloomberg.com

"Paris’s fight against the expanding business is the latest attempt to curb a development housing advocates say drives up residential rents. They rose 42 percent in the decade to 2013, according to government-funded research.

Paris, one of the world’s most visited cities, is stepping up its crackdown on illegal vacation rentals...?




Richard
 
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ronandjoan

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Look Out, Hosts: Airbnb is Turning Over Names to the NY Authorities - by Jeff John Roberts/ Airbnb-New York City-Regulation/ Gigaom.com

"Have you been renting out multiple apartments on Airbnb? If you live in New York, you could be in trouble as the company has finally agreed to hand over names to the Attorney General..."

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photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images


Richard
 

hvsteve1

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Saw on line that the moochers in the California apartment have finally disappeared allowing the owner to change the locks. These guys apparently have squatted before and will likely try to do it again. Their photos and names were in the story so that may help alert people.

This is the problem with airbnb. The owner is neither here not there. They are not a hotel so do not have hostelry laws to protect them (I don't think you can squat in a hotel in any jurisdiction without being arrested for theft of service) and they are also not treating the use of their home as a rental.
 

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Saw on line that the moochers in the California apartment have finally disappeared allowing the owner to change the locks. These guys apparently have squatted before and will likely try to do it again. Their photos and names were in the story so that may help alert people.

This is the problem with airbnb. The owner is neither here not there. They are not a hotel so do not have hostelry laws to protect them (I don't think you can squat in a hotel in any jurisdiction without being arrested for theft of service) and they are also not treating the use of their home as a rental.

I must have missed this story--was there a link I missed in the thread? Sounds like an interesting read. Just discovered my cousin has rented her summer cabin in the mountains very successfully this summer using airbnb.
 

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I must have missed this story--was there a link I missed in the thread? Sounds like an interesting read. Just discovered my cousin has rented her summer cabin in the mountains very successfully this summer using airbnb.

Hi Muranojo,

See Posts 50 and 51 in this thread.


Richard
 

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Shucks, I completely missed those and thought I'd been through them all--must have missed the last page. :eek: Thanks, Richard.
 

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Airbnb Will Collect Taxes in San Francisco Starting Next Month - by Liz Gannes/ Commerce/ Recode.net

"Airbnb will collect taxes from its hosts and and remit them to its hometown of San Francisco starting October 1, the company said today.

That means Airbnb-coordinated stays in San Francisco are about to cost 14 percent more than before, with the addition of the city’s transient occupancy tax.

The move comes as Airbnb is the focus of a legislative battle in the city over short-term rentals, which have largely existed as a loophole outside leasing and hotel systems. City leaders held a marathon eight-hour hearing on the issue this week..."


Richard
 

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3 Things We Learned From Airbnb's Proprietary Data - by David Yanofsky/ Booked/ Quartz/ qz.com

"New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman released a report today on Airbnb’s activities in New York City, in it were charts, graphs, and maps showing many aspects of Airbnb’s operation in the city. Schneiderman claims that most units listed on Airbnb are done so illegally with respect to both New York State and New York City laws regarding hotels, hostels, and other for-profit accommodation. He used Airbnb’s own data—obtained after he subpoenaed the company—to make his case.

The previously private, proprietary data, used to make the report will not be released, but Quartz was able to reverse-engineer one of the charts to extract some of the underlying information. Here’s what we learned:..."


Richard
 

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Airbnb's New York Listings Are Mostly Illegal, Attorney General Says - by Laura Lorenzetti/ Tech/ Fortune.com

"Eric Schneiderman is looking to shut down local Airbnb listings, saying they violate local hotel laws.

New York’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is cracking down on Airbnb.

Schneiderman is looking to shut down the online marketplace’s listings that he argues violate local hotel laws, which are in place to prevent people from renting residences for less than 30 days unless the occupants are also home, according to a release. A new state report found that nearly 72% of the site’s listings are illegal, based on the state’s laws..."


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Photo by Bloomberg - Getty Images


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When Uber and Airbnb Meet the Real World - by Claire Cain Miller/ Sunday Review: The Upshot/ The New York Times.com

"THE regulatory woes seem to be never ending for the newest wave of tech start-ups — the on-demand apps that connect people who need something (a driver, a house cleaner, a grocery shopper) with people who want to do the job.

On Thursday, the New York State attorney general said most Airbnb listings in the city violated zoning and other laws. Officials in California and Pennsylvania recently warned car services like Uber and Lyft that they might be unlawful. And workers’ rights advocates have questioned whether the people who provide these services should receive benefits, spurred by recent reports that some Homejoy house cleaners are homeless.

Why have these companies run into so many problems? Part of the reason is that they think of themselves as online companies — yet they mostly operate in the offline world..."

Richard
 

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The Business Tycoons of Airbnb - by William Alden/ Magazine/ The New York Times.com

"The sharing economy is supposed to offer a new kind of capitalism for regular folks. But a class of well-heeled professionals are outperforming the amateurs..."

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Illustration by Kelsey Dake


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Good News for Airbnb Hosts and Uber Drivers: Here Comes Insurance - by Catherine Clifford/ Entrepreneur Staff/ Sharing Economy/ entrepreneur.com

"Share the profits. Share the losses. The sharing economy gets even more
share-y.

Another step in the development of the fast-growing sharing economy is that it is getting its own insurance policies, designed to stabilize income generated by driving strangers around town or letting them stay in your home..."

20141205214725-air-bnb-uber-insurance.jpeg



Richard
 

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Airbnb To Begin Collecting Taxes in Amsterdam, San Jose, Chicago, and Washington D.C. - by Ryan Lawler/ TechCrunch.com

"Over the past few years, Airbnb has been working with local lawmakers and regulators on ways that it can comply with local hotel tax and housing laws. Those efforts have been slow-going, as its public policy team has more or less had to work with each individual city to do so.

But things are speeding up. Today the company announced that it will soon begin collecting and remitting tourist taxes in four new cities: Amsterdam, San Jose, Chicago, And Washington, D.C...."

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Richard
 

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With a Few Tweaks, Airbnb CouDisrupt Yet Another Multibillion-Dollar Industry - by Frédéric Filloux, Editory, Monday Note/ Quartz/ qz.com

"Airbnb has every reason to enter the news services sector—and to threaten a broad range of media/services such as Trip Advisor or Yelp.

Seen through the eyes of travel information publishers, Airbnb holds a dream position: a huge base of 25 million potential readers/users, spread over 34,000 cities in 190 countries, well in tune with the brand’s core product and attributes.

For a start, should Airbnb develop a publishing arm, its unparalleled notoriety would save it tens of millions of dollars otherwise required to promote its content services—after all, in the travel industry, advertising and marketing demand high spending. To put things in perspective: this year—according to the trade site Skift.com—HomeAway, one of Airbnb’s key competitors, plans to spend $100 million (after shelling out $60 million in 2014) “To show it’s not Airbnb.” HomeAway was created in 2005 and received $504 million in funding before going public in 2011—the stock lost 18% since. Airbnb has yet to go public after raising more than $800 million. Its latest confirmed round (closed in October) was for $50 million with a $13 billion valuation. Airbnb is now rumored to be raising a $1 billion “war chest” at an even higher price: $20 billion..."

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Where is Airbnb going next?(Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes)

Richard
 
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Airbnb Offers Cuba Lodgings in Major US Business Expansion - by Michael Weissenstein/ The Big Story/ bigstory.ap.org

"HAVANA (AP) — The popular online home-rental service Airbnb is allowing American travelers to book lodging in Cuba starting Thursday in the most significant U.S. business expansion on the island since the declaration of detente between the two countries late last year.

For a half-century, the U.S. trade embargo had blocked such businesses from entering the Cuban market. In January, however, the Obama administration loosened a series of restrictions on U.S. business in an attempt to encourage the growth of the island's small private sector.

Airbnb searches for "Cuba" now turn up more than 1,000 properties across the island, with 40 percent in Havana and the rest in tourist destinations such as Cienfuegos a few hours away on the southern coast. The company has been sending teams of representatives to Cuba for three months to sign up home owners, and plans to expand steadily in coming months..."

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A home owner sits in his living room at his home with rooms for rent in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday


Richard
 

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No Internet, No Credit Cards, No Problem: How Airbnb Launched in Cuba - by Sarah Kessler/ Most Creative People/ FastCompany.com

"Cuba runs on cash and almost no one has easy access to the Internet. But Airbnb found a way to beat U.S. hotels to the market nevertheless..."

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Isolda, a new Airbnb host in the Playa neighborhood of Havana.


Richard
 

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Questions About Airbnb's Responsibility After Attack By Dog - by Ron Lieber/ Your Money/ International New York Times/ The New York Times/ nytimes.com

"On Airbnb’s short and startling ride to global ubiquity, it has delighted many people. Hosts can rent rooms or their entire home and use the income to avoid having a day job, to make ends meet or to get into the bed-and-breakfast business without bothering with local licensing rules or all the usual red tape.

Travelers get to express their displeasure with local hotels and their sky-high prices and double-digit taxes. Plus, they can stay in residential neighborhoods or rural areas where inns might not exist.

That’s all well and good until somebody gets hurt. Which is what happened late last month to Mike Silverman, a 58-year-old American who encountered a host’s Rottweiler on the third day of his stay in Salta, Argentina..."

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Mike Silverman spent two nights in the hospital after being attacked by his Airbnb host's Rottweiler. Credit Anibal Adrian Greco for The New York Times


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Business is Booming, Says Airbnb CEO - by Dara Kerr/ Tech Industry/ cnet.com

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said Wednesday that the company is generating enough revenue that it doesn't need to raise any more money from investors.

"We are already the largest provider of accommodations on the planet and we're growing really really quickly," he said. "I think the biggest thing that's happening is that Airbnb is going mainstream."

Chesky was speaking with Co-Executive Editor Kara Swisher at Recode's Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., about the highlights and hurdles of Airbnb. The company is a peer-to-peer home rental marketplace, founded in 2008, that's gone from catering to couch surfers to having a massive online presence. It now has more than a million listings with hosts in 34,000 cities in nearly 200 countries..."

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