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Comment by Permit | Hacker News Reader

>Would you want random people having access to your building?

I don't understand this argument. You already have "random" people having access to your building. You don't get to vet a single one of your neighbors, and they change all the time (simply less frequently). It's currently entirely within the realm of possibility that a drug addict or noisy college kid could move into the room next to you.

The only argument I can sympathize with is that the people may not necessarily respect your space.

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>You already have "random" people having access to your building. You don't get to vet a single one of your neighbors, and they change all the time (simply less frequently).

You say this like it's insignificant, but it could mean the difference between 10 people and 10,000 people. If you're saying that the chance of encountering a bad element isn't higher when there are more people coming through, that's silly. Your chances of encountering a redhead, juggler, undercover spy, or florist will go up, also.

For what it's worth, I'd like to read a story about a redhead, a juggler, a spy, and a florist. It sounds like something interesting would happen.

It is about knowing who is responsible. Part of the deal of renting is your contract is with a single entity who takes the lion share of the responsibility: the landord/management corp. You trust them to vet the people who rent alongside you at entry point and handle issues within that subgroup of vetted people who will be there for a longish term and are accountable. Airbnb diffuses responsibility to everyone in the building, including people who you don't have a contract with (fellow renters) and people have no skin in the long term harmony of the building and little accountability (the Airbnb patrons).

In my city (Amsterdam), most of the apartment buildings that are popular for short term rental have no more than 3 to 6 apartments. I know all my neighbors. They don't change all the time.

In that context it's extremely invasive to suddenly have strangers in your building.

Luckily I have good contact with all my neighbors, two of them rent out their apartments regularly, but also live there part of the year. But often apartments are owned by people who just own the property and don't give a fuck about the people that live there.

Unregulated, AirBnB would ruin the quality of living for many people.

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