Submitted via IRC for soylent_lavender
How Airbnb's fight to overturn a New Jersey law imploded
Residents of Jersey City, New Jersey, voted overwhelmingly in favor of strict short-term rental regulations on Tuesday, putting an end to the high-profile feud between Airbnb and local officials that had engulfed the city in recent months. The move comes as a major blow to Airbnb, which spent more than $4.2 million blanketing Jersey City in television ads, handouts, and pro-Airbnb canvassers in a campaign to quash the restrictions, which will affect a popular destination for guests looking to visit Manhattan (which is just across the Hudson River and several minutes away on public transit) without running afoul of New York's tight rules on short-term rentals.
The new rules crack down on Jersey City's booming short-term rental industry—which has grown by an order of magnitude since city officials effectively legalized the practice in 2015—by requiring that owners obtain permits and limiting who can rent out their spaces and for how long. Despite an aggressive opposition campaign, voters approved the regulations in a landslide, with current estimates suggesting nearly 70% voted in favor of the measure.
Jersey City's rejection of Airbnb suggests that the tide may be changing for the so-called tech unicorn, as the city joins the growing ranks of former Airbnb defenders turned defectors. Local government officials around the nation that had been early advocates of the company, from Arizona and Louisiana to Oregon, are now turning against it. And with Airbnb looking to do an IPO in 2020—a process that involves airing out its dirty laundry for investors—every bit of regulatory backlash counts.
This story originally appeared on wired.com.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday November 13 2019, @03:52PM (6 children)
The AirBnB campaign screwed up - they didn't understand the voters' mindset. In a population like that, the way to win is not to stir people up - let it roll as stealth as possible and direct target the people on your side. Spending millions on broad voter awareness just brought out the NIMBY crowd. Whether this is right or wrong is moot, it's the way the system works and AirBnB just clearly demonstrated a dramatic lack of understanding.
Unless a city has a majority of voting property owners who rent, which is damned hard to do since property owners who rent tend to own multiple properties and often live out of town - and doubly so for AirBnB since those owners of multiple properties probably see AirBnB as unwanted competition, it's going to be very hard to find a majority of people who will check off on a ballot: YES - please increase the number of noisy transients who tramp in and out of my neighbors' houses.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by slashnot on Wednesday November 13 2019, @08:40PM (1 child)
I came here to post a similar comment. Airbnb was campaigning to ALL the residents of Jersey City, when only a small minority of those residents care to offer Airbnb rentals.
(Score: 2) by rcamera on Wednesday November 13 2019, @09:03PM
but i loved that commercial about a place 80 miles away from where i live... "i have to rent out my primary residence so that i can pay my property taxes" made me laugh every time. i kept wondering where they stayed while their place was being destroyed.
/* no comment */
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday November 13 2019, @09:06PM (3 children)
Raising rent levels and frequent gridlocking [theguardian.com] affect more people than just the neighbors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday November 13 2019, @10:09PM (2 children)
Barcelona is kind of an extreme case, and probably should have regulations to address this.
Almost like Uber making taxis out of normal cars, AirBnB is making hotels out of normal residences - and most places there are already zoning regulations to take care of that.
Some smug yuppies bought the house next to me in Miami, came around on the weekends and make lots of obnoxious noise, left their dog with no food chained in his own filth and literal bags of garbage all week, then... after 6 months of this, put up a "FOR RENT" sign on the front to try to rent out part of the house. Now, this structure was zoned R-1, and the rental agent was licensed, so one quick call to inquire about the rental: "what is for rent? Oh, just the front two rooms? First and last deposit? Yes, o.k., well, since the property is zoned R-1 and this would be an illegal rental, what happens to my deposit when the city comes in with a cease and desist order?" Rental sign was gone the very next morning, and the owners were even more pissed than when I had them explain themselves to animal control.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday November 13 2019, @10:27PM (1 child)
In TFA context, the proximity of Jersey City to Manhattan is likely to bring it in the same 'extreme' category if left unchecked.
My sympathy, glad that there was a solution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday November 13 2019, @11:16PM
>My sympathy, glad that there was a solution.
Not really a solution, and they weren't the ABSOLUTE worst neighbors possible, but... Cubans from Hialeah, lots of money, no kids, would have loud sex in the front bedroom (of 5 bedrooms) 10 feet from my garage when I'm working in the garage on a Saturday morning (more than twice...), and the dog thing - didn't correct when I asked them face to face about it, so I tried animal control who did visit and "educate" them - mostly in how toothless animal control is to do much of anything about it, but they did at least try to clean up a bit after that, and started complaining about leaves from my trees blowing into their concrete 4' wide yard where they kept the dog. Most amusing part was when I refused to cut my trees that would drop leaves was Ms. neighbor out in her lingerie top - no panties - bending over to clean up the dog area. We had a new baby and left within the year, so it never blew up into anything bigger than that. I actually preferred the family before them with 5 kids and a derelict/drunk uncle with his sketchy construction worker buddies who drank Tequila on that 4' concrete yard area. They left after #6 was born. I was hoping if they couldn't rent part of it illegally (like most of Hialeah does...) that they might sell, but no such luck. I actually learned the R-1 zoning trick from the crack dealer 3 blocks away, city was toothless to do anything about him for 10+ years, literally hundreds of arrests for all kinds of things, but the one thing they made stick on him was breaking his place up into 3 rental units when it was zoned R-1, that actually sort of put a kink in his operations for a while after they made him stop that.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 13 2019, @04:00PM
Imagine a world where nobody need suffer through a short-term rental in Jersey City.
(Score: 2) by donkeyhotay on Wednesday November 13 2019, @04:49PM (3 children)
AirBnb is one of those things that sounds great, until you have an AirBnb next door to you, then it's hell.
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday November 13 2019, @04:58PM (2 children)
As an occasional AirBnB renter myself, I have to note: other than when we arrive late at night as a chaotic family of four not knowing what the hell we're doing with the combination locks, we're pretty good neighbors. We sleep late, don't make a whole lot of noise, are out of the place most of the time anyway.
Real hell are long term renters who make the place into the local lowlife party pad. We've looked at buying some of those houses and actually had the neighbors come out and beg us: "Please buy this place and terminate their lease, Please!!! I'll pay you." Unfortunately, none of them have offered enough incentive yet to make one of those deals work.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday November 13 2019, @07:04PM (1 child)
You may be, but what about the next guy?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday November 13 2019, @07:49PM
Oh, for sure, and I'm betting the renter profile varies a lot by destination and even what's going on at that destination at the time (big football games...?)
Still, if you're in a 90% good profile with AirBnB next door, that beats the hell out of having party clan crue next door for a year straight. Even a 90% bad short term renter profile is better than the habitual bad actors - the cops will usually correct people the first few times, but the habitual partiers can grind them down and find the limit that still pisses off the neighbors but doesn't trigger arrests.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Wednesday November 13 2019, @06:58PM (6 children)
The theory seems great: You have a spare bedroom or something, you can rent it out easily.
In practice, what's going on includes:
- illegal hotels [nytimes.com]
- scams by hosts [vice.com]
- renters trashing the premises [washingtonpost.com]
It's almost like those laws about how hotels and normal bed&breakfasts work exist for a reason or something. I'm not saying nothing bad ever happens in hotels, but there are a lot more rules about them and a lot more mechanisms in place to prevent problems.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday November 13 2019, @10:16PM (2 children)
Like Uber/Lyft - just because your duck has an app now doesn't mean it's not still a duck.
The ridesharing and roomsharing apps really do change the landscape pretty dramatically as compared to a tourist information desk and a phone directory, particularly with things like couchsurfing, but... they are stretching the lines way past the breaking point in some places, and this kind of backlash should be expected - even more than it is already happening.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 13 2019, @10:40PM (1 child)
AirVagina! Have a vagina that you are not using all the time? Make some money on the side with AirVagina! Be your own pimp!
(Score: 3, Funny) by FatPhil on Thursday November 14 2019, @12:04AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday November 14 2019, @03:34AM (2 children)
>The theory seems great: You have a spare bedroom or something, you can rent it out easily.
And that's when it really works out well, for both parties. The service is just a platform for interested parties to find each other. It's like Ebay: you need to be careful which seller you go with, and not just think they're all the same or all trustworthy.
I've only used AirBnB once, and it was a really great experience. I wanted to visit a city in Europe but I mistimed it, and it turned out that time was the start of tourist season, and the hotel rates went through the roof. I was already in the country, and just "winging it", going from city to city in a not-well-defined plan, so I either had to pay hundreds of Euros per night for a hotel, or skip the city and go to a different city where hotel rates were better. So I got on AirBnB, and found an older couple with a private home about 30 minutes away from that city, renting out one of their kid's rooms. So I got to stay someplace not *too* far away for less than $50/night, I got to see what a private home in this country was like, and I got to meet and talk to the owner and try talking to him (I spoke some of his language, and his English was passable but not great, so it was a fun experience that way). Simply put, I never would have been able to have this kind of experience at a hotel or hostel.
Of course, this kind of accommodation seems very different from the kind which seems to give AirBnB such a bad rap. Those places aren't ones that are owner-occupied, from what I've read. They're usually apartments that someone is renting out just for AirBnB, and are vacant other than whoever's renting it that night. It seems pretty obvious that this kind of thing is bound to be problematic and have a lot of scammers. It's very different when you're staying in someone's private home as a guest, and they're still living there. Of course, there's downsides to this kind of travel too: you're a (paying) guest in someone's home, and they're still there, so you're not going to get the kind of privacy you get in a hotel. They're probably sleeping in the bedroom next door or across the hall, and you have to share a bathroom with them. You'll see their personal effects in the bathroom. You need to be quiet at night so you don't disturb them. It's a lot like staying at your uncle's or cousin's house for the weekend. And they may have some slightly wacky rules too. My hosts had a sign on the toilet prohibiting standing up to pee, for instance, and another sign on a door warning about the cats in that room.
(Score: 2) by quietus on Thursday November 14 2019, @10:29AM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday November 16 2019, @01:40AM
I'm not about to rely on some cab driver to find a decent hotel deal; that's the craziest thing I've heard all day. If hotels want me to stay there, then they need to advertise their real rates instead of relying on cab drivers to direct traffic to them. Finally, I don't use cabs in European cities; they have these handy things called "trains".