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Post by High Priestess on Mar 9, 2017 3:14:40 GMT
Airbnb eyeing the long term rental market.... www.cnet.com/news/airbnb-eyeing-long-term-home-rentals-craigslist/www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-08/airbnb-explores-expansion-in-long-term-home-rentalsI see this as both good and, potentially (extrapolating a bit) not so good. Good in that people already offer long term rentals on Airbnb, and there are guests using Airbnb to find long term rentals. Good in that there's a big market for that. Not so good in that I definitely dont' want to see Airbnb and other platforms that require people to set up accounts to use their service, to put Craigslist out of business. A world in which you can't find a rental without using Airbnb (or some other platform on which you have to create an account and provide private information) is a very scary world to me. Yes Airbnb in some ways is safer than Craiglist, but you'll have a hard time convincing those who've had their accounts terminated by Airbnb (sometimes with no explanation!) of that! Imagine a world in which you cannot find a long term rental because there is only one website to do that, and the company that runs that website wont' let you use it! However I have to say I'd love to see the looks on the faces of people who've been so anti-Airbnb, arguing it "turns homes into hotels", coming to find out that in order to do a decent search for a long term rental in their city, they now need to look at Airbnb listings. Zap!!
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Post by High Priestess on Mar 9, 2017 3:22:17 GMT
The 2nd article has additional info:
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Post by High Priestess on Apr 1, 2017 15:15:31 GMT
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Post by High Priestess on Apr 1, 2017 15:59:07 GMT
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Post by helgaparis on Apr 4, 2017 11:25:22 GMT
It depends on the country. In France, I had foreign students, that are airbnb hopping, as they can't get normal rentals due tocrazy local requests. Crazy to me, coming from a country, where most of them would be illegal. My sister, living in another country again, spent a horrible month handing back a house after a few years, the landlady insisting on everything be brought back to original state, even improvements. (A tiny vegetable garden in a huge garden, created painstakingly where there already had been one and where the next tenant will have one again: rake it even and sow grass. A wall socket and sat TV socket in the second bedroom: remove and fill with wall fill. New, same kind, good quality door handles on all doors of 3 floors: remove and put old ones, different kind and age for most doors etc etc)
In some markets, renting longterm on airbnb with clearly defined rules would be a relief, but a dominant position is a risk. Imagine someone had a problem during holidays, one nasty review and no more housing to be had?
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Post by High Priestess on Apr 4, 2017 22:09:44 GMT
Yes, getting bad reviews for doing long term rentals would be potentially quite a problem both for the renter and the property owner. And what if all websites doing long term rentals started requiring accounts and reviews? I dont' like that thought. A "wild west" situation where people can post without having an account actually seems safer in many respects.
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