Monday, December 16, 2013

AirBnB lays it on real thick


AirBnB has launched a full-scale media assault on Eric Schneiderman and Bill DeBlasio. Check out these sob stories and break out the voilins... From the Queens Chronicle:

When my mother’s medical bills and mortgages started to weigh on her, I knew I had to help. I dipped into my savings and started working evenings doing odd jobs. I didn’t think there was anything else I could do to make ends meet and help my family.

Last year, a friend told me about Airbnb and it sounded like a great way to rent out the extra room in my condo in Astoria. I had used Craigslist to fill my second bedroom with random roommates to help pay my mortgage, but the results were inconsistent.

Airbnb is different. Now I rent out my extra bedroom to new people with new perspectives.

Most of these guests would never be able to afford one- and two-week stays in a hotel, but with my place through Airbnb they can stay longer and spend more money at local businesses.

I provide them with an affordable, pleasant, enjoyable experience. I love acting as a local guide to my neighborhood, serving fresh coffee in the morning, and maybe even treating them to a free concert. They can experience the city like a local and leave feeling like they’ve made a new friend in the city. Airbnb has helped me pay the bills, cover my mother’s mortgage and pay her medical bills.

Everyone deserves access to this vibrant city. I love New York — and with Airbnb, I get to share the city I love with the world.


Yes, thanks for making the city more "vibrant". Did you pay the hotel tax?

And from the NY Post:

When I lost my freelance job in January 2010, Airbnb made it possible for me to keep my home in Brooklyn. I posted photos of my spare bedroom and immediately I got a request. My first guest was Ed from Amsterdam, a professor coming to the city to pick up his son from school. That summer, he returned to stay again, this time with his whole family.

Airbnb saved me, and continues to do so. In 2011 I was only able to put together 20 days of full-time work. This past July, I worked for a company that declared bankruptcy before paying me. But I knew I’d be safe financially because I had guests arriving. I’m grateful every single day because of Airbnb.

Of course, there are a few “bad apples” using home-sharing services, just as there are in other industries. The state is right to stop those who threaten public safety or create nuisances. But the vast majority of home-sharers aren’t slumlords, and they aren’t hurting neighborhoods. In fact, they’re people like me, working to make our communities stronger.


Yes, I feel my community is stronger when a parade of strangers passes through my neighbor's house. And did you pay the hotel tax?

From Metro:

Airbnb released a video inviting friends and family of Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio to come stay with “real New Yorkers” when visiting the city to attend the inauguration.

The online room finder even extended the invitation to the mayor-elect himself, should he find himself away from Park Slope.

“Mr. Mayor, if you’re ever in Hamilton Heights you’re always welcome to stay with me,” one Airbnb user in the video says, subsequently echoed by apparent residents of Williamsburg and Astoria.

But de Blasio has historically not been a fan of the embattled tech company.

At a Democratic mayoral forum on technology in April, then-candidate de Blasio spoke against the company, citing concerns about the comfort and security of permanent residents.
“The problem with mixing the two on the open market is you are exposing folks in a [residential] building [to] folks who are not part of that system,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the mayor-elect said his previous comments on the company still represent his stance.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Airbnb is great for the city. Hope de Blasio comes around.

Anonymous said...

Ya, it's great for the city to be ripped off by tax cheats.

Anonymous said...

It sucks when you live in a co-op that's filled with strangers coming and going and partying all the time.

The owners aren't always there - some of them never live there - they just rent out their places short-term to make a living.

And not every renter is a professor from Amsterdam. What incredible bullshit!

The point of living in a co-op or condo, in addition to hopefully having a nice apartment, is that there's some quality control going on regarding one's neighbors!

There's an illegal Chinese hotel down the block from me and it's just not right that tons of strangers are coming and going all week long on a residential block. Oh yes - it's been reported repeatedly to 311 - ha ha!

Joe Moretti said...

"Everyone deserves access to this vibrant city."

Does that include the residents of this way overpriced and overrated city?

Anonymous said...

Gotta love the narrative from the article:

As a competitive marathon runner and avid musician, my time is consumed with promoting classical music and logging 40+ miles a week.I don’t have a lot of extra spending money.

Why doesn't this guy quit Chariots' of Fire fantasy and pick up some part time, or sell his condo and start renting like the rest of us if he's too busy for the responsibility.

Anonymous said...

AirBNB should be outlawed: Here's how to do it - prosecute the individual for running a boarding house without a license. (Create a license if not already in existence) Insure double the hotel tax is collected for boarding house license owner revenues - what is that 28% TAX? Place a lien on house, condo or coop until fine is paid. Otherwise if apartment renter is charged, his landlord will have a lien placed on his building. Let's get after AirbNb!

Anonymous said...

Here's the AirBnB philosophy: the end justifies the means.

Anonymous said...

"Everyone deserves access to this vibrant city."

That's even included in the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It falls under art. 10, sec. NOT!

Anonymous said...

Air bnb is just another way to destroy rent stabilization and rent control.
there is someone who rents out rent stabilized apartments under his mother, sister, brother and lawyer's names. Then turns around and charges triple the rent to foreigners who want to be in Manhattan. He has an entire empire based on this, owns a house in Gallowy, NJ and is on Medicaid.

This is one of the reasons there are so many homeless people. Housing is no longer seen as a service provided but a scam to be run.

Anonymous said...

"This is one of the reasons there are so many homeless people."

That's simply not true. The vast majority of homeless people are mentally ill or convicted criminals or jsut down on their luck. It has nothing to do with rent control or stabilization, unless your position is that regulation takes apartments off the market and makes them unavailable, which is true.

Anonymous said...

Oh how utterly darling! They got a real live Hispanic guy to speak Spanish! How marvelously ethnic and cultural! I must support their cause immediately, if just to help the poor little ethnic person!

Anonymous said...

Short version of the whole campaign; I am a "artist" and I am getting priced out of the city. The only way I can afford to stay here anymore is to whore out what little space I have here and allow complete morons looking for a bargain to stay here.

Anonymous said...

Lazy, law-breaking , so called "Real New Yorkers". If you think you know so much about New York and want to " share" it with tourists, then start a legal tour guide business, and don't use your apt as a flop house....it's illegal.
Real New Yorkers know this.

Anonymous said...

No one shares my bathroom. No one!

Anonymous said...

Homelessness is created by the housing court and by Republican's agenda to destroy Rent Control and Rent Stabilization.

We have had 20 years of Republican mayors in NYC. In housing court, it all comes down from Gracie Mansion.

The impact is seen on the streets and subways with homeless people. there are homeless people who are working, you would never know to look at them.

Air BNB is creating homelessness by destroying affordable housing.