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AIRBNB in PH: developing professional standards?


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AIRBNB in PH: developing professional standards?

The writer attended a Meet-up this morning in Makati.

Here's a summary of the discussion.

SL22-AirBnb2_zpsim80rgbl.jpg

Attendees included people managing several dozens of apartments in the Makati area

They manage those flats by renting them out to short term tenants through Air-BNB and related services. It was interesting to learn more about the opportunities and challenges involved in the short-term renting business

Key discussion points included:
+ How these Short-term service companies grow the number of units they manage
+ Methods of control : Ownership, lease-in, joint venture, pure advisory
+ Dealing with bookings, flat cleaning, accounting, and tax issues
+ How some developer/managers like Ayalaland (Premier, Alveo, Avida) do not allow leases of less than 3 months. While other developers (like Megaworld, and SMDC), appear to be more willing to allow and assist landlords who want to rent their flats to short term sub-tenants

It is clear that there are a number of people looking to bring more professionalism into this sector. One big advantage is that it may be easier to grow the business, and retain a good relationship with building management, if the building and its tenants know that ST rentals are being conducted by persons who promote and maintain high professional standards.

Some of the areas of possible cooperation that were discussed included:

==============
1. Standardizing House Rules for ST tenants
2. Group insurance, since that might achieve significantly lower costs
3. Joint approaches to Building management to demonstrate how professional standards are being maintained
4. Sharing info about how the business is taxed, and/or should be taxed
5. Developing software that generates client-friendly reports
6. Heading off scams by Airbnb users before they become widespread

This group was invited to use this Makati Prime website to develop discussions into greater depth
Advice of future meetings by the group may be posted here
=== ===

Quick LINK to here: http://tinyurl.com/MP-Airbnb
 

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  • 2 weeks later...

USA type "fight-back" - will it come to the PH?

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Prying Eyes Are Watching Airbnb Users as Tenants Fight Back

In a gentrifying neighborhood of San Francisco, a couple exit their cab and head toward an apartment, rolling suitcases behind them. Unbeknownst to them, a private investigator by the name of Michael Joffe sits in his parked car just across the street, discreetly snapping pictures.

This is not a divorce case waiting to happen or an international spy caper. Nothing that salacious or mysterious. It is instead an episode that provides a window into how bitter the feud between struggling tenants and home-sharing websites like Airbnb Inc. has become. Joffe works for a tenant lawyer who in turns represents a family that was evicted from their apartment -- the one that the couple was entering that day.

The goal of the stakeout was to uncover, and document, smoking-gun proof that the landlord is violating city ordinances limiting the use of private homes for short-term rentals. It’s very lucrative work nowadays in San Francisco, the city that’s come to represent America’s shortage of affordable housing.

“Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you want to look at it, it’s a decent living in San Francisco right now being an investigator doing these kind of jobs, because here are so many of them,” Joffe, 48, said.

more https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-27/prying-eyes-are-watching-airbnb-customers-as-tenants-fight-back

 

/ 2 / NYC has a truce with Airbnb

 

Airbnb has capitulated to the demands of lawmakers over its operations in New York City, the company’s largest market in the United States, agreeing to drop a lawsuit in which it was pushing back against a newly passed state law that it said could have hurt its business.

The short-term home rental service on Friday settled the lawsuit that it filed against New York City two months ago. The suit challenged a New York law that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed in October. That law called for fines of as much as $7,500 for illegally listing a property on a rental platform such as Airbnb.

The company had said the large fines could have deterred hosts and impaired its revenue in New York City. Hosts in the city generated about $1 billion in revenue last year, and the company took a cut of that in fees.

But Airbnb on Friday agreed that it would drop the suit as long as New York City enforces the new law only against hosts and does not fine Airbnb. The settlement takes effect on Monday.

More http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/03/technology/airbnb-ends-fight-with-new-york-city-over-fines.html?ref=business&_r=1
/ 3 / Problems mentioned even in Thai press
Airbnb tensions mount

Airbnb posters and billboards now are common worldwide. (Photo via Airbnb.com)

Airbnb, the online lodging service that investors now believe is worth $30 billion, faces a reckoning.


http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1117841/airbnb-tensions-mount-in-us-cities
/ 4 / Berlin too:
... In Berlin, Airbnb is fighting a city demand that it turn over information to help enforce a new law imposing fines of up $110,000 on people renting out more than 50 percent of their homes for less than two months - among the strictest regulations worldwide. ...
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  • 1 year later...

From cash-strapped roommates to Airbnb billionaires

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A decade ago a pair of San Francisco roommates decided to make rent money by using air mattresses to turn their place into a bed-and-breakfast when a conference in the city made hotel rooms scarce.

The brainwave led to the creation of Airbnb, a startup now valued at more than $30 billion which boasts millions of places to stay in more than 191 countries, from apartments and villas to castles and treehouses.

Here are some key facts about the sharing-economy star, which has sent tremors through the hotel industry:

- Humble beginnings -

- In late 2007, with hotel rooms selling out due to a design conference in San Francisco, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia decide to make some extra money to help cover the rent in the apartment they share, by using air mattresses to turn it into a bed-and-breakfast.

- A third former roommate of theirs, Nathan Blecharczyk, teams with Chesky and Gebbia in a venture they call "Air Bed and Breakfast," launching a website in August of 2008.

- Struggling to get the business off the ground, the startup founders stage a quirky stunt at the Democratic National Convention in late 2008, selling boxes of cereal custom-branded "Obama-O's" and "Cap'n McCains" for $40 each -- raising enough money to stay afloat, and earning much-needed publicity.

- The startup name is changed in March of 2009 to Airbnb as it envisions being about more than sleeping on air mattresses.

- In April of 2009 Airbnb gets $600,000 in seed funding from Sequoia Capital after a string of rejections from other venture capitalists.

- Disrupting an industry -

- In 2011, Airbnb boasts of being in 89 countries and of booking more than a million nights' lodgings. The startup becomes a Silicon Valley "unicorn" valued at a billion dollars based on some $112 million pumped into it by venture capitalists.

- In June of 2012, Airbnb announces that more than 10 million nights of lodging have been booked on its service, with some three-quarters of that business coming from outside the US.

- In 2012, Airbnb is hit with the problem of some guests leaving homes in dismal condition due to parties or other raucous activities. The startup puts in place a million-dollar damage coverage policy as a "Host Guarantee."

- In September of 2016, Airbnb raises funding in a round that values the company at $30 billion.

> MORE: https://www.yahoo.com/news/cash-strapped-roommates-airbnb-billionaires-033859101.html

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