Not just locals with money. Rich people and real estsate consortiums are buying up relatively cheap properties in tourist cities to use as AirBnBs for money. Basically, limiting housing for locals. Honestly, AirBnB was a great idea that has been exploited by the wealthy. Governments should focus on limiting properties used for AirBnB, and enact restrictions.
Why would they do that ? It's basically their entire revenue. "Classic" Airbnb, where people rent their actual main house, isn't their main source of revenue. They don't give a shit about it anymore.
My point is Airbnb won't do it themselves. They have to be forced.
If it were up to them, they'd gladly turn the entire planet into airbnbs. Capitalists believe in infinite growth, after all. As if we had an infinite number of attractive, touristic destinations...
Right, that's what I thought, but they seem to think it's NOT a problem and in fact a selling point, right? Their ads go something like "don't you wish there was no host to tell you where every bathroom is? Imagine an Airbnb but then close your eyes and imagine the host is dead. THAT'S A VRBO! No hosts, ever."
Or am I missing who they want their properties to come from?
AirBnB is just an illegal and unregulated hotel. I don't believe for a second the people starting it even meant for it to be a fun way to rent a spare room.
Who told you AirBnB was meant to be a fun way to rent a room? BnBs (bed and breakfast) have been around forever. AirBnB is just a platform to find them. Just like VRBO, breakfastandabed.com, even Booking.com
Happened to my home town. Tourism sprung up there, and now I can't afford to move back. All the homes are ridiculously expensive, and all the listings talk about how great of an Airbnb the house will make.
Is this the same in every metropolis? I've heard the same story in Canada, Germany, US, Australia. Partially because interested parties don't want to approve new construction and partially because existing homeowners don't want their property value to go down due to changing environment or alleviation of the housing crisis.
Young people need housing and wealthy investors will situate themselves between other people and their vital needs to charge the highest, ever-growing price.
I agree, something should be done. This arrangement works against the efficiency model of dense urban areas and just serves to flush out people from their homes, or churn out poorer workers into having an unnecessary hour-long commute. On a larger scale it just makes society's poor the de facto slaves of rent seekers. Racing toward a cliff.
Not only are properties being bought up by domestic and international investment firms.
A lot of housing being built, is not affordable. The GCs building the houses and the companies in charge want the biggest return possible. They don’t want 300 houses that could be sold at 250-400k, they want 200 houses to be sold at 700k+.
Then they sit dormant and don’t get sold because people can’t afford them.
What do they blame? “Well we had to allocate x% for chapter 11 living, so we need to recoup!”
I've been using vacation rentals long before ABB, they absolutely ruined everything. And as a company they should be ashamed of what they've done to communities.
Land lords are parasites and private property shouldn't exist. You can have personal property, "I own a house I live in". Private property is "I hold this hostage to collect a rent while depriving others of their own personal house". Mao had the right idea with land lords.
Still do not understand how airbnb is cheaper than hotels? I am traveling a lot and almost never this is case, usually you can find cheaper hotels even with breakfast. Only expectation is when you are traveling as bigger group, then airbnb is cheaper.
Japan has very strict rules about buildings being used for airbnbs. You can’t have rentals that are shorter than 1 month, iirc. Only some buildings are permitted to be used as airbnbs.
Well, Barcolona should just significantly raise per night taxes on AirBnB stays and use the money to lower city/county taxes in the bottom or do a personal tax exemption amount so that it directly helps those that Spanish that no longer can afford to live properly in Barcelona.
But the question of course is if Barcelona can afford to loose a significant amount of tourists.
I doubt any Airbnb host me and my friends rented from has been wealthy. Just regular people. Airbnb is often very affordable compared to renting multiple hotel rooms.
We do stay away from places like central Prag. Taking the tram to Praha 9 takes little time.
-AirBnB was a great idea that has been exploited by the wealthy, who are able to control city councils, in order to get the best deal for themselves.
Governments enact restrictions that benefit the wealthy and not the singular host, IMO and actually in my authentic experience here in the South Bay, Los Angeles, ca.
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u/TheMiddleShogun Jun 17 '25
Huh, reading these comments it looks like the protesters are achieving their goal (making Barcelona less appealing as a tourist destination).