AirBnB a Pandora's box of nightmares

[Paula Samuel]

Back in 2008 when the real estate market took a dive, many of my clients were upside down and risked losing their properties.  I began to offer them an alternative means to keeping their properties viable, short term renting.  I now have five properties and have dedicated the past four years in building a short term management company.  All of my properties are listed on VRBO and Homeaway.  About two years ago, when I first starting hearing the reference Airbnb, I listed my properties on their website as well.  Have done next to no business with Airbnb as the original Airbnb model was for a sofa in someone's living room, or a spare bedroom.  All of my properties are privately owned condo's that range in price from $175-$300/night.  All the Airbnb inquiries were for backpack type travelers looking for stays under $100/night.  I've kept my listings on Airbnb simply for the exposure and marketing value.  Now, Airbnb has become a nightmare.  It first started in NYC with the very public media exposure linking Airbnb to illegal rentals.  It then again became a problem in Portland Oregon and now, San Francisco. San Francisco just passed a regulation mandating that Airbnb collect all TOT fees from homeowner's and submitting to the city.  In addition, SF subpenaed Ab&b for owners private information; contact info, email address, physical address, phone numbers, etc.  In San Francisco, Ab&b has now become the Time Warner of short term rentals, which is bad in every way.  Ab&b is the new kid on the block and has monopolized the entire industry.  I have no issue with anyone making money, but I have issue with any one entity becoming a monopoly.  Now, they have introduced an off-shoot Airenvy, the property management side of Airbnb.  Again, there are many property management companies out there to choose from.  One only needs to do some research and get referrals from other property owners.  However, Airenvy is saturating the market.  Click on any google search and more than likely the first thing you'll see is a banner ad for Airenvy, even if you're googling fracking, or best Italian restaurant in your neighborhood, etc.  Doesn't matter what you are googling, Airenvy will be there.  Today, there was a posting on my FB feed for Airenvy, however, this one really got my goat as it stated under the beautiful picture of a couple in the mountains, "New service for VRBO."  It's not a new service from VRBO.  As a matter of fact, Homeaway, the VRBO parent company is suing San Francisco over it's decision to make AB&B a monopoly.  After attending a meeting last evening, the LASTRA - Los Angeles Short Term Rental Alliance, we are going to aggresively lobby the city of LA as we don't want our city to place regulations based on any one entity be it AB&B, VRBO, etc.  In short, this used to be a quiet, cottage industry largely operating without much fuss.  Thanks to AB&B, there are now city's across the country implementing and in some cases, banning short term rentals altogether.  They have opened Pandora's box for so many and seem to be skating on by to ultimately dominating the short term rental industry.  I for one, am not a happy camper!

[J. Martin]

@Paula Samuel ,

I think there will continue to be disruptions in the short term furnished rental market, both through technology, legal changes, etc., and I don't think that's stopping any time soon. It's natural to be unhappy when the status quo that provides someone a living is shaken up. But it was bound to happen at some point, so time to adjust!

Do you have a portal to drive your own traffic?

Do you benefit enough from Airbnb's traffic to use them, despite how you hate how they "monopolized" the industry?

(naturally, through their own innovation and critical mass - not through twisting your or someone else's arm).

I don't think winding back the clock is an option, so time to find a solution going forward. And it looks like you're justifiably focusing on lobbying, if it's a big business for you..

Good luck!