We live in a vacationy area and there’s a shortage of accommodations for tourists. Half of our house has been an Airbnb for two years now. It’s been great. The guests are almost without fail excellent; clean, quiet, polite etc. We don’t have to interact unless we want to since their part of the house is self contained with two bedrooms, kitchen, living room and all. And when we have family visit we block the dates for Airbnb and everyone has loads of room to not get on each other’s nerves.
What I particularly like about it is that Airbnb takes care of the financial stuff. I don’t have to talk to people about money.
And we’ve used them when we go on vacation as well. Way cheaper than a hotel, we can stay together as a group and cook our own meals if that’s what we want.
Last, but not least; I had to stay in another city for most of a week while my husband had surgery. A cheap hotel room would have cost me about $150/night even with the hospital discount, and I would have had to buy meals. The Airbnb apartment that I rented was $85/night, there was room on a sofa for my step-son, and we could eat in at the end of the long days.
I can see where they’re a problem in cities where people are buying property purely to Airbnb them. Sucks for the neighbors. But if you own a cottage or a vacation property I think Airbnb (or VRBO) is a great way to pay the bills. As long as you respect your neigbors.
Only time i did it was me and my gf rented a nice small room in a brownstone not far from Fenway. We kept it tidy, they had a nice place. It was a good experience.
The AirBNB that I booked in Toronto for next month’s conference cost almost down to one third the hotel conference price. It was far below half the price. It is a condo that my wife and I will have all to ourselves. It has free parking on site — after I give my presentation I’ll rent a car and take her on a drive out to Gananoque where we’ll do a boat tour of the Thousand Islands. I’ve been out there before but she hasn’t. We’ll also drive out to the beautiful farm country where they filmed the movie, Fly Away Home. Gorgeous country, out there.
I’ve learned a lot from this thread from peoples’ tips on how they AirBNB. Thank you all for the good tips. My wife will be working from the condo while I’m at the conference. And from what I can tell it is very safe and is a clean, well-lighted place. Which is what I needed for her, and for us.
As a customer, I’ve used AirBNB a few times. I like the basic idea.
But as an unregulated business model, it’s wreaking havoc in my city. At last count, 3.5% OF ALL HOUSING in our city has been dedicated to short-term rentals by landlords who realize what a quick buck they can make. The pressure it places on the remaining housing market is driving prices through the roof, making it impossible for working-class locals to remain in the community.
The article gives me hope, as it mentions a company that helps crack down on illegal AirBNBs run by housing speculators. I know that up till now, the city has been incredibly lax on enforcement of the laws.
Again, if it’s well-regulated, it’s a fine model for vacation rentals. But when it’s unregulated, it falls prey to the same excesses capitalism always falls prey to.
I’ve had good experiences on Air B&B, but it needs to be regulated for sure. I can see why some communities don’t like it, particularly if you have a-holes like the one referred to in the OP who ruin it for the other owners who are responsible.
Strictly speaking, the property is being put to the best economic use. Working class locals should look to purchase someplace more affordable. I feel bad for them, but I don’t feel guilty for them. I feel bad for keyliners, but not guilty for them, either.
Define ‘best’. The owner is extracting short-term profits, but potentially at the expense of the long-term value of the home.
In addition, the value of adjoining properties may decline, and it sounds like the city in general may be suffering short, medium and long term damage.
It’s similar to CEOs who manage their corporations to maximize the next quarter at the expense of the long-term health of the company.
This is exactly the sort of thing a HOA can protect you from. by requiring that any rental be for a minimum length of time (e.g. six months) and requiring that any rental be of the whole property, no renting just a room or a floor of a house.
I know, I know. I hope I’m dead before your breed start taking all of our private property. You’re already kind of doing it, but at some point, revolutions happen and we evil property owners will get what’s coming to us.
Hope you’re getting all your overreacting out of the way here, and not doing it in real life.
Our city just started regulating AirB&Bs and VRBOs, and kind of saved the quality of life here just in time. What they did was require that if you’re going to pimp out your house, it has to BE your house. No absentee landlords, no buying a property not to fix it up but just to VRBO it out…
Case in point: our neighbors got caught in the bureaucracy, but still made out like bandits.
Right before the annual Crossfit Games, they AirB&B’ed their whole house for a two week chunk of time. One group of twelve people for a fortnight. Now, the city’s new regs meant they had to clean up, get inspected, fix any problems (they basically had to childproof the house, change anything that might injure a guest), then get re-inspected. And had a fee to cover all that.
But even with that, and the cost of a nice hotel (with a pool!) for two weeks, they made enough for a trip to Italy!
With thanks to commasense and others here in this thread, our AirBNB in Toronto has worked out very well. We’re nearing the end of our stay in the West Queen West area of Canada’s big city. We check out tomorrow.
What we have here in this place (I’m posting this from our Toronto “home”) is an excellent value. We have the condo to ourselves, just me and my wife who joined me on my work trip. Parking was not an added cost, and we rented a car for the past couple of days for sightseeing. It’s a little bit strange staying at someone else’s place, but our host has been responsive and good. We’ve communicated by text through the AirBNB app, as per the rules, and I had his cell # in case I needed to call with any questions (we had none).
One complaint has to do with the AirBNB app when locating a suitable place to stay: AirBNB lists their available places by neighborhoods in Toronto, which is good — I can look at a map to see which neighborhoods are close to where I need to be, and you can select the neighborhoods you want, but unfortunately the many (very many!) neighborhoods are not listed in alphabetical order in the app. Frustrating. As far as I could tell there wasn’t any perceivable order to their listing. Who in their right mind thinks that is helpful?
On imgur I posted some sightseeing pictures — Thousand Islands (Cottages, Mansions, and Castles), and Ontario Farmscapes - Album on Imgur — pictures of my wife and me on our boat tour of the picturesque Thousand Islands and drive through the beautiful Ontario Farmlands near Kawartha Lakes and Bobcaygeon, which was the filming locations for an old family movie we enjoy, Fly Away Home (1996).
I’m happy with how my pictures turned out and we were able to catch some beautiful fall colors. I hope you enjoy them.
What follows is how AirBNB lists the neighborhood areas of Toronto — one filter to find a place to stay, you can select the neighborhoods you want. I wanted places near the conference I had to speak at.
I"m glad it worked out (except for the neighborhoods thing). TO is a great town.
As for the searching by neighborhoods, I’ve never bothered to try. (I don’t think I even knew it was a possibility.) I just locate my conference hotel (or other point of interest) on the map and search for places near it. But I see that the random order is not very helpful if you wanted to use it.
This isn’t about capitalism though. It’s about people running what are basically hotels without having to abide by the rules that hotel owners do. And even in places where rules are in place, lots of people just break them.
Again, in many cases this is criminal behavior and a lot of places are now cracking down on it.
Lovely pictures! They must have the same boats all over Canada, because the one in your first pic looks identical to the one we took from Vancouver to Vancouver Island years ago.
We stayed in two AirBnB places last week in Buffalo. The first one was fine; an old house that is being restored, clean and comfy. The second one was a dump; the couch looked like something college kids would have on their porch, lights didn’t work, fire exit blocked, and generally dirty. Worst part was the guy in the adjoining unit coming in late and then barfing his way through the night and into the morning.
