I have never actually used Vrbo, Airbnb, and similar businesses that offer accommodation. I had been vaguely under the impression that they offered cheap, short-term, accommodations because people were renting out spaces in their homes that were under-utilized, often because their children had left home. They provided basic things like a bed and bathroom access and enabled the renter to make a little extra money and for the budget-conscious traveler to avoid expensive hotels.
But recently I was planning a trip where there was no hotel near the place I wanted to be in. So I looked up Airbnb. I was surprised at how expensive the accommodations were, close to and even more than hotels. It seems like this so-called sharing economy has gone from providing cheap accommodation to being expensive ‘experiences’. I decided that I might as well stay a little distance away in a hotel where at least you have some idea of what you are getting.
Jen Sorensen has a cartoon about this transformation. What is worse she says that this trend is resulting in long-term renters being squeezed out of their homes because the owners think that they can make more money on short term rentals.
As I said, I have never used these services and thus have no first-hand experience but in a commentary on her cartoon, Sorensen expresses my own reaction.
Whenever I look at Airbnb listings, I’m amazed by how expensive some of them are. People are apparently paying big bucks these days for flashy, Instagram-friendly “experiences.” In many tourist areas, long-term renters are getting priced out. Part of this is due to the raging real estate market — though the money to be made these days from short-term rentals can quickly outpace income from traditional tenants. This isn’t exactly helping to stabilize things for working people who just need a home, not an experience.
In another cartoon, Sorensen says that this is part of a trend where institutional investors are buying up homes, sometimes entire subdivisions, including rental properties, and then raising prices.
She also quotes a Wall Street Journal article about older, wealthier people who are now finding it harder to sell their huge McMansions because few can afford them.
For their retirement in a suburb of Asheville, N.C., Ben and Valentina Bethell spent about $3.5 million in 2009 to build their dream home: a roughly 7,500-square-foot, European-style house with a commanding view of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The Bethells said they love the home but it now feels too big, especially since their adult son visits only about once a year.
It is only now that it feels too big to them?
Is this the brave new world, where older, wealthy people rattle around in huge homes that are hard to sell while young people work in the gig economy with no steady job or benefits or hopes for retirement and are forced to live a nomadic life with no steady home?
I find it unfathomable that someone could dream of building a mansion in their retirement. Maintaining a home is a nuisance and a large home is a damn nuisance. When I retired, I decided to get rid of pretty much everything and live in a small apartment with the minimum of stuff, which is what I did. It was one of the best decisions of my life. My most expensive possessions right now are my eight-year old car and my laptop. Last year when there was a fire near here, we were asked to prepare for potential evacuation. I found that everything that I needed could be packed into a small suitcase that I could load into my car and drive away. All my other possessions would not add up to more than a couple of thousand dollars worth and could be replaced. It was an enormously liberating feeling.
“It seems like this so-called sharing economy has gone from providing cheap accommodation to being expensive ‘experiences’. ”
Our experience has been the opposite, both with Air BnB and VRBO. We’ve found very nice accommodations for reasonable — quite reasonable in two cases — from both. However, the last one we took advantage of, in Traverse City, MI, was last spring. Since covid has been heating up we haven’t looked at anything
I think the recent price spikes that are around have more to do with demand as people believed the covid issue to be “in its way out”.
Vacation rental spaces make sense when you are with a big company as it makes sense to rent entire home. We have done it few times with friends and family (unto 6 families in one large home) and it is fun, but it doesn’t make sense if you need accommodation just for a night. The hotels are standard, provide standard services and much more reliable in that case. I have had a very bad experience with airbnb recently when I needed just a one night accommodation in Pittsburgh (I had to find a hotel at 9 pm because of the rude host) and have decided not to use airbnb or VRBO going forward unless I am going at some exotic place for a longer vacation.
I’m a little squeamish about staying in someone else’s actual house: you just don’t know what you’re getting. For some reason, as Mano says, a hotel feels more well-known.
The absolute joy of freedom from possessions is well-known, and I love it too. Minimalism, or simple living, they used to call it. I haven’t pared down everything I own enough yet, but recently my house insurance was renewed and they wanted me to get insurance for my possesions. I just don’t own anything that’s worth anything. They suggested a refrigerator or a stove or washer and dryer, but I only want very basic, simple models of all of those. My laptops and car are also my most expensive possessions. My furniture is basic.
My friend, like Mano, once had occasion to leave her house due to an advancing fire. Her husband packed the computer and his violins (he was a professional violinist) and a copy of their fire insurance policy. She thought about what she wanted to bring, and narrowed it down to three items: the dog, the baby, and the baby pictures.
Car? What’s this car business?
I can’t see the difference; one pays money to stay somewhere, either way.
No. It’s the longstanding privilege of older, wealthy people in all eras.
The experience with buying houses to exclusively rent out on Airbnb and others has been the main reason that the majority of European tourist cities have put limitations on how many days an address can be rented out through them. One or two months is the limit and that isn’t enough to recoup the investment. And as expected people try to get around that all the time.
I am borrowed by another aspect of the phenom: Especially when it comes to condos or apartments, your neighbors may not want to live in a hotel with a constant stream of “guests”. Too often, these “guests” hold wild parties that impact the neighborhood. My town officially does not allow VRBO as we consider them commercial uses. That does not mean people don’t do it, but they are all subrosa.
bothered by. Oops.
Related: Cory Doctorow on Uber: https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/10/unter/#bezzle-no-more