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Airbnb Fires Back, Accuses Hotel Industry Of Punishing the Middle-Class (thehill.com)

Posted by msmash on from the shots-fired dept.

According to a legal documents, the American Hotel and Lodging Association (lobbying group for hotels in the U.S.) kicked off a plan last year to fight back Airbnb and other home-sharing services with a $5.6 million annual budget. Airbnb has responded to the revelation. From a report: The company's head of policy, Christopher Lehane, accused hoteliers of price-gouging customers and called their fight against Airbnb a "campaign to punish the middle-class" in a letter. It's only the latest salvo in a long fight between Airbnb and the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA), which believes the startup is cutting into its business. [...] In a letter to the AHLA, Airbnb accused the group of trying to hurt middle-class property owners. The Airbnb head of policy argued that "we ought to be able to agree that the middle-class family that shares their home while traveling is not a commercial operator running a business." In its minutes, the AHLA alleged that many of the listings on Airbnb are operated by commercial entities. Lehane also accused the AHLA of being inconsistent on homesharing. He said the group's board meeting showed support for "the rights of property owners to occasionally rent out a room or their home."

9 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. "Since your Idea is Better than ours...." by Zurkeyon3733 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "We are just going to lobby to make your idea Illegal!" How Pathetic! :-P

  2. Choices. by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I work remotely and need to be at a few different sites a few times per month.

    For ~$50/night at AirBNB I can get a quiet room, a place to sleep and no distractions.

    A hotel in the ~$50-$100/night range has a hall that smells like weed. People wandering up and down the halls at all hours of the night and hit or miss bed bugs.

    1. Re: Choices. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Sigh. Air bnb doesn't have to shoulder the cost of maintaing a property or staff, nor do they directly control customer experience. This is such strawman BS it isn't even funny. Give us abreak, already. The sharing economy was a bad, bad idea. I predict that in ten years, any of these companies that are actually left will just be traditional companies. Crowdsourcing is not a viable business model, ultimately. No, I would call most of this a 'fad'. Fads pass.

    2. Re:Choices. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      AirBNB is causing property investors to buy up condos/homes with the pure intention of putting them up on AirBNB. This is driving up home prices by causing an artificial inventory shortage where entire blocks of cities don't have a resident, only AirBNB renters.

      This hurts the middle class.

      [Source: Harvard Law & Policy Review - http://harvardlpr.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/10.1_10_Lee.pdf]

    3. Re:Choices. by vux984 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why can't the middle class also buy up condos/homes and put them on AirBNB?

      Get a clue... the middle class lacks the free money to buy an extra house just to rent out. Many in the middle class are often themselves renting because they don't have the free money to buy even a house for themselves, nevermind a spare one to rent out... meanwhile they are being evicted from those rentals so the owner can rent it by the day more lucratively on sites like airbnb.

      Your solution to them being kicked out their rental to make room for airbnb, is to buy 2 houses; so that they too can benefit from airbnb!

      "Let them eat cake!" am i right?

    4. Re:Choices. by rtb61 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Tough luck. If the difference is between my neighbour being allowed to turn the home into a for rent party house 7 days a week and it being strictly against planning laws to attempt to turn any home into a hotel at a whim, I stick to the strict planning laws, thank you very much. Having trouble affording holiday accommodation, than buy a bloody tent, no hotels in areas zoned residential only and huge fines for those who attempt to break those planning laws.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  3. Let's be honest. by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Let's be honest.

    AirBnB is "Home Shareing" about as much as Uber is "Ride Sharing".

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
  4. Middle class screwed either way. by extranatural · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I live in a city where rental properties are hastily being converted to Airbnb rentals at an alarming rate.

    Many middle class folks, myself included have been recipients of no-fault evictions as landlords rush to cash in on the short-term rental craze.

    At least in my city, Airbnb drives up the price of property, making the dream of home ownership an increasingly distant fantasy for many in the middle class.

    Sure when I travel, I can more easily afford a room for a night, but I'm a lot more concerned with the affordability of a the property I have to rent longterm. One day I hope to afford a mortgage, but I don't know how that will happen if every property gets converted in to an ad-hoc hotel.

    Now if you happen to be one of the lucky middle-class people who already owns 1 or more properties, you might be able to make a little money with Airbnb, but for the most part Airbnb is doing nothing to help the middle class.

  5. Resedential by fluffernutter · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How is keeping residential areas residential punishing the middle class? Don't the middle class have homes that would benefit from not having a loud party next to them every weekend?

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.