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Comment by Symbiote | Hacker News Reader

> in order to protect one's neighbors from... what exactly?

In my case, the late-night noise, rubbish and vomit of the people staying in the apartment above mine.

The vomit was disgusting, it splashed down all the balconies from the 5th floor to the ground. But at least the culprit was immediately obvious. A cleaning bill was sent to the owner of that apartment, and the different-every-weekend people having a party on the balcony above mine stopped.

And it's hardly a few bucks. More like €80-100/night.

> limitation of what one can do in their own home

It's typically forbidden to use your home as a restaurant, crèche, laundry etc without some form of permission. Why should turning it into a hotel be different?

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> restaurant

Supper clubs are a thing. People invite others over and cook for them. Some are so popular that money probably changes hands. Do we need to regulate that?

> crèche

I had to look this up, but it sounds like a daycare. People do childcare/babysitting in their homes. That's not unusual. Children are usually cared for in a home.

> laundry

If you're talking about installing a full laundromat in your house, yeah you might run into problems. If you want to charge someone a couple bucks to use your washer and dryer, I don't see how that's going to run into any problems. There are no laws restricting how frequently you're allowed to do laundry within your own home that I know of (other than maybe noise complaints that might happen if you're doing laundry in the middle of the night in some apartment complexes).

Your neighbors can also have rowdy friends over. What difference does it make whether the people there are paying or not?

If there's behavior with negative externalities, regulate the behavior. Not the particular circumstances.

"regulate the behavior"

what if the behavior is already regulated, but is difficult to enforce?

Then step up enforcement. That's the problem which should be addressed, and is just as relevant if a bunch of stereotypically rowdy college kids move in next door.

what if said company spends millions applying political pressure to oppose that?

If the neighbour lives there, they have to handle the fallout, whether that's angry people bashing on their door past midnight, the police, or just spiteful glances in the morning.

With AirBnB-as-a-hotel, the neighbour hardly ever has to meet the people they're annoying.

This surely makes a difference in the behaviour of guests.

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