› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Airbnb and holiday lets › Short shrift for airheads › Current Page
If you had read the whole of my article you would have seen that I think AirBnB is a good idea. I don’t see how objecting to it being used to break the law is in any way “narrow-minded”.
What I have a problem with is AirBnB and other similar sites, with thier broad spread and social media cachet, being used to undermine existing laws against short-term letting, both zoning and individual building’s by-laws. I’m not asking for new laws to be enacted, just for the current ones to be enforced.
AirBnB itself asks its clients to confirm that they are not breaching local laws and by-laws. However, they then don’t seem interested in the fact that many of them are, in fact, breaking the law.
In the Watergate building in Melbourne, you have one of the worst examples of what happens when people are allowed free rein to let their apartments to whomever they chose, for as long or as little as they wish.
I can only assume that you don’t live in an apartment building or, I suspect, you might feel a little differently. For those of us who are trying to shake off the last century attitudes that apartment residents deserve all they get for choosing an aberrant lifestyle, Airbnb is a finely honed edge on a very large and sadly familiar wedge.
I’m hoping your flat in New York wasn’t in breach of zoning or the building’s by-laws. By the way, my wife uses Airbnb when she travels researching her books and I plan to use it myself in the future. But I won’t be staying in flats in buildings that ban short-term lets.