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Comment by Sangermaine | Hacker News Reader

>I can't wrap my mind around people that think that 'too many tourists' or 'too many jobs' are a problem.

Step outside of theoretical economic thought experiments and try living in a formerly quiet neighborhood or building suddenly experiencing an influx of loud drunk littering assholes. Residential areas are desired as residential areas for a reason. I live in NYC and sure as hell don't want to live around Times Square. There are actual people living in these cities who want a decent quality of life where they live.

Echoing many others in the this thread, in a previous apartment in a residential area of Manhattan someone down the hall starting renting their unit to Airbnb visitors. It was a nightmare, but thankfully the landlord caught wind in a few weeks and kicked the person out.

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The correct way to handle those problems is to enforce noise and litter regulations. If your owner-neighbor is rowdy, it's no different than if their guests are rowdy.

Neighbor stays and is subject to enforcement, AirBnB guest leaves and isn’t.

AirBnB pays the fine, because they can afford to because they just made hundreds off the guests that littered and made a mess so they can chalk the fares up as the cost of doing business.

I'd bet the fines can be appropriately large and punitive if that's the case.

The owner or tenant is subject to enforcement and pays the consequences of their guests actions.

Sure. Which would be what exactly? He can’t have a license revoked since he’s not having one.

I meant "pay" in the literal sense of paying a fine.

I don’t know about anything but Germany, but here you’d have to sue the owner yourself. Enjoy. Well now, since AirBnB is illegal in Berlin he might actually get fined.

> sue the owner yourself

That's awful. In the US we have misdemeanor noise violations that carry a fine (or jail time if you refuse to pay).

Neighbors will call the police if your party is too rowdy. They'll show up looking for underage drinkers. Usually if you are nice to the cops and promise to be quiet (and everyone they see is 21+) they'll just warn you and not write a ticket.

are certain that the fine could be levied against the owner instead of the actual perpetrator?

If the ordinances don't account for the scenario, they could (and probably should) be updated to indicate that repeat offenses at a rental could lead to a fine to the owner, so that they have a compelling interest to ensure their neighbors have a good experience

I think you're on to something here! They could ensure their neighbours have a good experience by having something like a nightwatchman, and a front desk that people could go to for assistance!

That's why I enjoy living in an apartment or condo building. Home-owners associations are also useful for a cluster of single-family homes.

And the fact that you don't see your neighbours and that the schools suddenly have a reduction in intake?

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