> I don't buy the externalities. Affects other tenants how?
Read through the rest of the comments thread then. There are plenty of examples, and there are even more if you scroll down to the bottom of this page and type AirBnB in the search box.
> At least if an AirBnB guest is a jerk, they'll be gone in a couple days.
And then a next one comes.
> Having short term guests hurts the neighborhood? How? So every neighborhood with a hotel in it is automatically a dump?
It does, because short-term guests have no incentive to care about the quality of life in that neighbourhood. Notice that you can't put a hotel anywhere - there are zoning restrictions exactly because short-term guests tend to create some problems, and many people decided they don't want such an establishment in their areas. AirBnB subletting is basically ignoring the will locals expressed about what they do and do not want in their neighbourhood.
> Tracy Smith lives two houses down from one of Martin’s rentals, a short walk to the popular Rainey Street restaurants and bars. She says she’d rather see kids in the backyard of Martin’s property than guys playing beer pong
Sorry, lady. You don't get to decide what happens in other people's backyards. I don't consider busybodies who want to enact housing discrimination based on age and marital status as having a valid concern we should support with legislation.
Another comment below complains about tourists being drunk and noisy and making groceries more expensive. I live in DC. Every year tourists descend on us like locusts. They clog up the public transportation, they don't know how to drive in traffic circles, and they're generally in the way and obnoxious. Still, that's part of the price you pay for living somewhere with lots of interesting things that people want to come see. There are plenty of boring, cheap places with no tourists or other short-term visitors.
> And then a next one comes.
Yes, and in an all probability, they won't be a jerk. Most people are normal, reasonable human beings.
> It does, because short-term guests have no incentive to care about the quality of life in that neighbourhood.
But the hotel has every incentive to care about the quality of life in the neighborhood. They also have far more resources compared to the average homeowner to influence the local government to e.g. increase police patrols or provide better street sweeping or whatever.
Zoning areas by use type has created its own enormous set of problems, from ever-increasing traffic, pollution from forcing people drive everywhere they need to go, increased water usage to support ornamental lawns, poor storm water management, tremendous infrastructure investments necessary to support low-density suburban areas where the property taxes can never repay the investment, and on, and on.
These are real externalities that are far more serious and damaging than "maybe a noisy person will be next door for a couple nights". So, people's decision that they don't want "such an establishment" in their area, ultimately creates its own set of costs that the rest of us have to bear.
Read through the rest of the comments thread then. There are plenty of examples, and there are even more if you scroll down to the bottom of this page and type AirBnB in the search box.
> At least if an AirBnB guest is a jerk, they'll be gone in a couple days.
And then a next one comes.
> Having short term guests hurts the neighborhood? How? So every neighborhood with a hotel in it is automatically a dump?
It does, because short-term guests have no incentive to care about the quality of life in that neighbourhood. Notice that you can't put a hotel anywhere - there are zoning restrictions exactly because short-term guests tend to create some problems, and many people decided they don't want such an establishment in their areas. AirBnB subletting is basically ignoring the will locals expressed about what they do and do not want in their neighbourhood.