› Forums › Airbnb and holiday lets › Short term let threat from B’n’B website › Current Page
25/09/2013 at 4:02 pm
#19575
poppy said
It appears to me that airbnb is giving the FAIRFAX owned stayz.com some competition as that site is not mentioned in any commentary on this topic and it is a major contributor to this rental problem
It is not up to the people who run Airbnb or, indeed, Stayz, to police short-term rentals in strata buildings. The powers exist to fix this problem if the Owners Corporations (or even individual owners) have the desire to do so.
And I resent the implication that I am involved in a plot to bag Airbnb because it affects part of Fairfax. That is contemptible.
My partner uses Airbnb all the time and swears by it when, for instance, she has to do research trips to Melbourne. She has already made a very good friend there just by spending a few nights in this person’s house.
I recently planned a trip overseas and intended to rent an apartment using Airbnb.
The problem isn’t Airbnb or, indeed Stayz; it’s the selfish bastards who think they are entitled to rent out their apartments as short-term lets with no regard for their buildings’ by-laws, council zoning or their neighbours’ quality of life.
However, Airbnb is a little different from Stayz and other rental sites because of the social networking element that might lead people to believe everything is above board when, in fact, their landlords may be flouting the laws.
If you read enough of the comments on the website, you will eventually come across phrases like “the landlord asked us not to tell the neighbours we were renting …”
Even so, blaming Airbnb and Stayz for short-term lets is like blaming car salesmen for drunk driving.
The point of my article was that Airbnb has opened up another avenue for short-term letting strata parasites. That’s enough of a problem without introducing irrelevant (and, frankly, insulting) conspiracy theories into the picture.