Make no mistake, AirBnB is evil.
It is very little ‘cute family makes some cash on an extra bedroom’ and much much more ‘rich landlords drive out the residents of entire neighbourhoods to turn their apartments into illegal hotels that ignore all regulations that apply to the usual hotel business’.
And the company AirBnB is deliberately feeding that by not releasing information that would allow governments to combat abuse of AirBnB.
Like most parts of the ‘share economy’ where people make money by ‘sharing’ what they own, airbnb mostly serves the very rich at the expense of everyone else. It’s just another form of neoliberal bullshit. Fuck AirBnB.
More:
- 5 ways AirBnB screws customers
- Why is AirBnB evil? According to Vancouver
- Airbnb Will Probably Get You Evicted and Priced Out of the City
- From Berlin to Barcelona; will Airbnb ruin our most loved cities?
- Airbnb rebrands neoliberal bullshit
- AirBnB is an evil company and YC should be ashamed to be apart of it.
(And yeah, I know there is no ethical consumption under capitalism but 90% of the time hostels are cheaper than AirBnB and coachsurfing still exists. If you want to avoid AirBnB but travel on a budget, you probably can.)
Also how tf is that more liberal evil than assuming consumers are in any way at fault for this, and trying to imply that that there are companies that ARENT evil??? The only reason airbnb sticks out is because their business model is new
Well, that’s true. But some evils are more vulnerable than others and this particular evil company is something evil that
1. has a very direct impact on our own neighbourhoods right now.
2. markets customers who like to think that their consumption choices are ethical
That’s not a unique combination but it’s a vulnerable one. And if there is more knowledge about how AirBnB is evil, it could well result in a sharp decline of its use, which would result in less of our neighbourhoods getting ruined and less people evicted.
And ya know, I like not getting evicted.
Are hotels any better? No. But most cities have spend many centuries regulating where and how they operate so that neighbourhoods used for living can not be entirely converted into hotels. And ya know, they gotta do proper fire safety and shit.
Airbnb Will Probably Get You Evicted and Priced Out of the City | VICE News
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