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Comment by Outpox | Hacker News Reader

I went to Bruxelles earlier this year with 5 other friends and I'm glad we were able to rent a whole flat for 3 days, we wouldn't have been able to do so by renting from professional. Altough we noticed that the place we were staying in was dedicated to being rented all the time.

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In the UK, there's plenty of short-term lease companies and "aparthotels" which rent out entire flats, but have actually gained the necessary permission from local Government to do so. I assume there's similar companies elsewhere.

You're assuming Airbnb owners are all not 'legal.' I have a place in Provence that has three apartments we list in AirBnB and booking.com, etc. We pay tourist taxes and taxes on the business income. It's not fair or even accurate to assume that AirBnB listings are less legitimate than "Lease companies."

AirBnB is a distribution channel, not a business model.

> It's not fair or even accurate to assume that AirBnB listings are less legitimate than "Lease companies."

No, but unfortunately the majority are (at least where I am), and AirBnB has a vested interest in ensuring that they don't have to make sure their listings are legal, and their customers don't care.

The whole article this is based on is the city of SF forcing Airbnb hosts to register with the city and for Airbnb to validate registered hosts. It appears that Airbnb is explicitly attempting to aid illegitimate (ie. non-registered) listings.

Have you tried hostels? With a group of 5 you could probably get a dorm room to yourselves. I've stayed in over 30 hostels on various trips. Some are shit, but the majority of them were really nice and a lot of fun. You meet a lot of cool people and you don't overpay for a room you're just going to sleep in anyway.

Why not suggest a tent? A hostel isn't the same as renting an apartment. I for example have little kids so renting a hostel isn't as efficient as an option.

When I was a kid my family stayed in a hostel in Billund (where Legoland, Denmark is). We got a 4-bunk room to ourselves.

It's also a good chance to introduce your kids to the concept of a hostel and what's involved, so when they're older they will already be comfortable with heading out into the world.

I've done that. It's not that great...

So you were renting from a professional.

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