I live in Flamingo Heights next to Giant Rock Meeting room and at the time Mojave WiFi was the only ISP serving the area. Thing is, it’s just so expensive. It’s been reliable, but we’re spending $130/month.
Does anyone know of cheaper, reliable alternatives that service the Flamingo Heights neighborhood?
Would you screw that cap with something like channel locks to tighten it? No idea what I’m doing here
I agree with you that bans are extreme and should be avoided.
You see permitting and/or capping STRs per neighborhood as extreme?
Hi fellow hosts,
I posted this article yesterday, but realized a few things from the comments.
As a result I'm re-posting the article, with a longer set of summaries for those of us that are paywalled, or don't have the time to read the full article.
HBR Article on impact of STR-ban on New York City housing market
"What does the article say if I don't have time to read the full thing?"
"I don't operate in NYC -- why should I care?"
What's happening in NYC is the single largest case study of STR bans and their effectiveness on increasing housing supply, reducing home prices, the impact on hotel / STR rates, etc. While *your* market in idaho, lake tahoe, smokey mountains, flagstaff etc. might not have a full ban in place, I can guarantee that every housing commissioner in the country is watching the NYC market to determine *IF* a ban makes sense for their market. It means weighing the pros / cons of STRs in their market and using the data provided by NYC as a case study to understand this highly nuanced and politicized topic.
"Who wrote this? Can I trust this study and reference the data points in my own conversations?"
\*I'll caveat this by saying we should all challenge what we read online and do our own due diligence. That said, I've spent 15 years in the tech industry working for startups, Google, etc. I'm also a STR owner/operator. I've read dozens of well researched HBR articles, and I trust what HBR publishes.***
This article is no exception. There are gripes I have about the article. Mainly that it has a lower reading level than some other HRB article written, and the data presented isn't as impactful as I would've liked. That said, the background of the authors are very esteemed and are experts in their field:
"The article mentions seasonality, it's a city, I don't have a flat, etc, etc. etc.. That doesn't apply to me!"
Frankly, this doesn't matter. The purpose and point of this article is analyze the effectiveness of NYC's STR ban, using an objective of an approach as possible with multiple authors, and solid data collection, cleaning, and analysis. With a qualified study, other housing authorities in the likes of other cities and jurisdictions around the country are looking to NYC and asking if a ban-approach is right for them. As a result, being educated and informed about what's happening in NYC allows you to speak intelligently to your own housing authorities, planning commissions, city councils if a ban approach is being discussed.
"Is this good or bad for me as a STR Operator?"
This is a highly nuanced situation. Cities all over the country are trying to figure out the best approach for there market, and ultimately there are pros and cons to every policy decision. Especially one that touches many constituencies (Guests, Hosts, Hoteliers, City Planning Commissions, etc). There isn't ever going to be a single silver bullet approach to STR policy. That all said, I think this article does a decent job of providing quantitative data points to suggest that banning STRs outright is not an effective way to solve the housing crisis, bring home prices down, etc. There are more "cons" than "pros" when taking this approach, and ultimately it's just the hotel operators who win in this situation.
Instead, a more calculated and nuanced approach via permits, or capping the number of rentals per market may make more sense that allows the benefits of STRs operating in market to flow through to the consumer, while also not allowing entire neighborhoods to be overrun by Airbnbs.
"What's the point in writing all of this up?"
There's no doubt about it. Airbnb and STR operators have a shit reputation right now. People across the country feel as if "Greedy STR Owners" are taking up the entire housing supply and causing the rise in home prices. This article provides data to suggest that statement is simply not true.
I'm a STR operator (I own 2 airbnbs), an airbnb customer (I've stayed in over 100+ airbnbs), and I'm also someone that exists in this world of real estate and home prices. I feel it's my job, and every other STR operator's job, to be informed on the data surrounding this issue and use this knowledge to change the perception by the American Public above. By mainly...
I’m not sure that’s the point of this article?
There’s a reason for this. It’s the largest market in the country that has taken the approach of a full ban. It’s one ever STR owner should be paying attention to.
Why?
Because of what can be learned from NYC as a case study of “if bans work”?
The article says almost exactly that - while the title is just a question, the article goes into depth that I would say shines more positive light on STRs than against them.
This was striking to me as well. This is HBR not some mom n pop real estate blog. Further, the writers have a tremendous amount of experience. It was shocking to me how few questions they dug into, the lacking and incomplete data presented, and the general 4th/5th grade reading level.
This is a highly controversial and politically motivated topic, and to put out a sub par article like this is an odd move by HBR.
Regardless, the data that is presented does portray a nuanced picture of one that generally supports STRs in nuanced ways, and a binary ban likely isn’t the best way to go about regulating STRs and requires a more thoroughly researched method including (but not limited to) one of the approaches mentioned:
1) Drop your rates (10% below market)
2) Be extremely thoughtful about your listing details. Make sure it’s very accurate
3) Ask for guest feedback at time of review. Something along the lines of, you’re a new listing, looking to improve, and deliver an excellent guest experience. Is there anything you as the host could’ve done to improve their stay?
4) Over deliver against the listing details.
As another Airbnb host that's trying to provide the best possible experience for my guests -- I'm truly sorry. This is unacceptable. If anything like that ever happened to a guest of mine, it would prompt a full refund.
My wife and I travel exclusively in airbnbs (because of the extra space + comforts of home) and host two airbnbs ourselves and we've had nothing but great experiences when we travel and host. It's disappointing to hear of these types of horror stories as a guest.
I feel like these types of hosts are ruining it for the whole platform.
Man this is what this sub needs more of. This is motivating. Thank you for taking the time to write up all of these updates. Cheers from a fellow FI nerd in Joshua Tree, CA.
Maybe this is a good thing when it comes to consumption of junk food, sugary/processed food etc?
Obesity rates are through the roof in America, maybe by shrinking all the amount of bad food we buy in America it’ll have the unintended consequence of being a health benefit?
Trying to be glass half full on a shitty shrinkflatiom situation.
To not have the tools available to help users has to be incredibly frustrating as a support person at Airbnb. I have a little more empathy for them.
Even if they aren’t given the tools to help me…
1) Id still like the support rep to understand the issue at hand and give me a response like you just did. I think what triggered me so much about this back and forth is that the final agent that responded to me, didn’t even read the context of the conversation and suggested how I change my cover photo
2) If the agents are going to respond in the middle of the night in my timezone (PST) , please don’t automatically close out the ticket when I don’t respond 😂
These are the most basic asks of a partner support org
My question to Airbnb Support had to do with "Categories". I also do all of my own research on the help center so I know everything I can before reaching out to support.
A gentleman named Mark seems like he doesn't read my message at all, and gives me the exact blanketed response that seems as if it's copy and pasted from the Category feature page
I respond back to Mark and say that everything he's said to do, I've already done and am looking for an answer that's far more detailed.
Rajesh comes on and interprets my message as I want to change my cover photo (LOL). When I don't respond (because it was 2 am my time) he closes the ticket immediately.
My vote is up hwy 395. In my opinion one of the more beautiful highways in America
There’s other fees that we pay for to run our Airbnb on the software front that I don’t see here:
All-in I think we spend something like $200/month on software to run our Airbnb business
A few days ago I posted my annual dividend growth progress (post, here) and a few folks in here asked about the google sheets template I used to create the chart.
Here's a free google sheets template you can use to track your own annual dividends:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1T4hdC5hiK-thD3PkO0WPECFVL63_HRggDXZE0xT2WQw/edit?usp=sharing
Copy into your own drive and adjust your annual dividends (Col. B) + annual dividend target (Col. C).
Hope this helps!
This is what I ended up doing. And going to save $60/month.
Alternative to Mojave WiFi
JoshuaTree