› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Airbnb and holiday lets › Holiday Letting by-law: The great debate › Current Page
@tharra said:
Why isn’t the solution to this mess sheeted back to the purveyors of short term lets like AirBNB? Currently they put the onus on hosts to comply with all legislation.
Right at the start, a couple of years ago, I remember an Airbnb flack telling me that they “made sure” their hosts complied with local laws.
When I pressed them on this, it turned out “making sure” was asking them to tick a box saying they were allowed to let their apartment.
“So,” said I. “What if the owners corporation sends you a copy of their by-laws and a copy of their zoning to show the host does not have permission? What do you do then?”
That’s between the host and their owners corporation and council, said the Airbnb person, adding that if anyone had a complaint about an illegal airbnb let, they would pass it on to the host – and that’s all.
It is this carefully cultivated and religiously maintained grey area that has allowed airbnb to spread and flourish around the world. Individual greed and lack of corporate responsibility matched with a robustly nurtured mythology of “helping ordinary people to share their homes” have created a monster.
But it’s interesting what happens when an even bigger monster enters the arena. Last year the City of London told airbnb that they didn’t care about the letting agency’s “privacy policies”.
If airbnb couldn’t control holiday letting of homes that were supposed to be residential, then the council would.
Guess what happened. Airbnb in London, unlike anywhere else in the world, agreed to de-list properties that breached the council’s limits on holiday lets.
It’s a shame that our councils and politicians here in Sydney can’t wait to roll over and let Airbnb tickle their tummies.