AirBNB experiences

[frequent]

I wonder how many posters use AirBNB. Technically it’s illegal in Thailand - like prostitution - but seems to thrive. However some condo building managers are fighting back anyway. Apparently some AirBNBers hold noisy parties, disturbing the long-term residents. (Who’d’ve thought?). In one condo I know there are stern warnings posted against short-term lets. The same building however itself does month-by-month lets for a minimum of one month. In another there are large signs in English everywhere - clearly aimed therefore at tourists - asserting that someone who has paid for a day or a week is “trespassing” and, if detected, will be arrested and charged at the nearest police station. My guess is that in practice, if not in law, this is sheer bluff. Certainly tourists can be seen arriving and departing on an almost daily basis with the inevitable multiple large suitcases. The signs are clearly generic with the usual bullshit about “the Juristic person” without actually identifying how one would find such a person to hand oneself in (the recommenced course of action) so I guess there’s a market for such signs for condo management

[arsenal]

Why are you so obsessed with the legalities of prostitution in Thailand? You've lived there for 30 years yet it's like you make this discovery every two weeks and feel you must casually drop it into the conversation.

[frequent]

Why are you so obsessed with the legalities of prostitution in Thailand? You've lived there for 30 years yet it's like you make this discovery every two weeks and feel you must casually drop it into the conversation.Does it annoy you? Oh dear. I must remember that :devilsh:

[arsenal]

No. I'm curious more than anything. Old people tend to fixate on things and with you it's that issue and of course, Matt.

[frequent]

No. I'm curious more than anything. Old people tend to fixate on things and with you it's that issue and of course, Matt.Yes, I see that as the explanation for your incessant attempts to bait Scottish-guy - but as we’ve already established you have a bad case of Relevance Deprivation Syndrome

[arsenal]

As you've told us that prostitution is illegal in Thailand about 30 times and every time as though you're expecting gasps of amazement perhaps the RDS is yours. Maybe nip over and tell Matt in one of your valuable lecture posts.

[Moses]

Do you both need me to separate your fight from original thread?

[arsenal]

Not at all. It's important information and needs reiterating bi-weekly.

[neddy3]

Personally I think that it is closer to juvenile crap.

[Adelphi]

If anyone can provide any information to the original question that would be helpful - thanks.

[aussie_]

I have two AirBNB rooms across from my apartment. It is a problem. Most users don't give a damn about others, slamming doors and talking loudly in the hallways or in their rooms.

My condo in Pattaya had the signs up but it's all bs. Most airBNB stay a few nights or less. They were registering them outside the building but now a travel service office has been set up inside the front door of the condo building and the airBNB guests register inside the office. The condo management must be making $ out of it.

I will be leaving this condo soon but finding somewhere peacuful to live in Pattaya is not easy.

I use AirBNB myself when traveling but try not to disturb everyone else in the building unlike the f##kwits that stay in my condo.

[lonelywombat]

I am interested in where you are living.

[pong]

Is it becse you want to stay there or becse you want to rent out?
In this big EUR city where I still am (due to fly to BKK next week) the council has become so fed up with it, that they are now threatening to ban the whole thing and fine anyone who is still renting out.
I've for Th only checked BKK and not Patters, but to me it seemed very limited in offers and also fairly expensive compared to the normal hotels. But i've also once read an enthusiast review about a place just of Sala daeng (corner of silom), much more privacy, like a private condo/flat.
AND; may be you get a better, more well behaving like us renters if you use the specific gay such sites, like ebab or misterbandb

[scottish-guy]

...may be you get a better, more well behaving like us renters if you use the specific gay such sites...

In my experience gay people are not better behaved than str8 people - they can be much worse - they just misbehave in different ways.

In fact, dogs in heat behave better and are more discerning than some gay people.

It's the personal values of the renter that matters, not his or her sexuality

:drink:

[arsenal]

I've never used AirBNB so I'm not sure of the appeal. What's wrong with a good old fashioned hotel?

[DoubleDutch]

I visit The Base often, friend of mine owns apartment there, but I usually go there to hook up with Chinese date, off Blued. The lobby, and outside of The Base is busier than most hotels, Chinese Airbnb guests all over the building, and outside, just off Second Road. Coming down from higher floors is tricky, often long wait, elevators can't handle the flow of people. Had I paid 4 - 5 Million THB for 1 bedroom there, the hostel environment would not be simply be inconvenient and upsetting, it is actually hard to live there around peak season.

The Base condo board hired private security company last year, around November or so, I saw several uniformed security guards trying to prevent Chinese from entering the condo grounds, as they were stepping out of taxis and buses, with luggage, huge bags on sidewalk, the place resembled refugee camp. Security guys had a4 size cards in hand, warnings in large print saying short term rent in this building is against the law. Chinese looked confused, everyone phone in hand, texting, talking, presumably to apartment owners.
I stood and watched the show, in every few minutes a Thai would come by, take Chinese couple, and walk right through the building's security gate. Nothing the security could do, no one can deny entry to an owner, or long term tenant who has proof of ownership, or rental agreement, and he/she has a right to bring in guests.

It is not so bad this year, there are far less Chinese in Pattaya now.

But similar Airbnb short term rental issues are in every condo, Centric Sea is full of Chinese, 3 day visitors, I've been to every condo in the area many, many times, thanks to Blued, always Chinese, I usually never ask, because most Chinese guys don't speak English, at Blued we can talk, app has translator built in. I've asked few, their answer is travel agency. But how does a travel agency get a condo vacancy? It must Airbnb, and other classified, Hipflat is very busy, both sales and rentals.

The Base and Centric Sea seem to be worst hit, just going by how many times both places come up at Blued.

[scottish-guy]

Even as an outsider I can easily see how someone who has paid a considerable sum to buy into a nice quiet Condo complex would be well pissed off to find it has suddenly turned into an unofficial and illegal holiday camp.

SE Asian holidaymakers may not be fucking everything in sight like sex tourists, but in my experience of sharing a condo block with them they do have some strange ideas.

Lighting an outdoor instant barbeque inside their apartment (with the door wide open of course, thus smoking out the entire floor) is one of their little incidents that I won't easily forget

[Manforallseasons]

I had a lovely condo in South Pattaya which has become largely an Arab ghetto, my condo was full of Arabs renting short term I couldn’t take it anymore and I was very lucky that I found a buyer, now I live in a rental condo in the Pratanack area.
The condo I live in now is mostly owner occupied and has a very active board of directors that has written into the condo laws there can be no rentals less than 1 year.......It works very very well. My advice to people looking for long term rentals is get to know the condo complex before you rent and certainly before you contemplate buying.

[gerefan2]

I had a lovely condo in South Pattaya which has become largely an Arab ghetto, .

Yensabai?

[Manforallseasons]

Yensabai?
I sent you a PM it was not Yensabai however, I went to Yensabai last year, what was once a nice condo looked like a nightmare with paper signs all over the lobby in Arabic....Frankly add miss Piggy to the mix and I do not know how anyone can live there,

[Nirish guy]

Whilst I've never rented an airbnb in Thailand i / we do use them a lot in other Countries and I've yet to have a bad experience. In answer to the question why those over a hotel room firstly I do still use hotel rooms if that's the most appropriate option, however there are several reasons I find Airnbnb ( and Misterbnb which is the gay version) suitable too.

In my case this includes my usually renting the complete apartment or house and not just going for the only renting one bedroom option. That usually finds me a great place, in a good location and one where I can feel a bit more at home in more so than just a hotel room, unless you're used to renting suites everywhere you go ( which I don't).

Likewise it gives the options for relaxing in the kitchen / living room and being able to lying around having a coffee or a light breakfast or lunch when first up in the morning without HAVING to get up and go out to eat ( which also saves money on stupid expenses ( in Italy I think I spent more on ridiculously expensive morning coffees in their stupidity small cups that I ever did on beer during the day ffs !). Likewise if you didn't always want to ALWAYS eat out in fancy restaurants or otherwise it was nice to have somewhere to come back to and use as a base that had all the utensils you needed already there to allow you to bring food / wine back etc.

I've also found them very useful in terms of gaining local knowledge from the host, either in terms of getting advice re where to go and where NOT to go equally as importantly and also for help with things like where to park your car etc ( I saved a small fortune in Spain because the house had a parking space in a local city centre car park that came with the rental and so I got 24 hour parking for 7 days, bang in the city centre and for FREE !) and all right outside the door of my apartment.

Likewise I should add that if there's a few of you travelling it's a great way of saving money too - for instance last weekend I went to Dublin, a standard hotel room in the busy Templebar party area is about 140-200 euro PER room per night, we needed two rooms ( 2 couples) and bagged a lovely apartment bang in the centre of Templebar, with THREE bedrooms ( so we could have had 6 people staying of we wished) plus a lovely kitchen living room area to all mingle and all for only 130 euro in TOTAL, so that was a MUCH cheaper option.

Also if travelling for fun we've rented "a room" before specifically to meet and chat with the owners ( who we'd decided on reading their profiles sounded like interesting guys) and it turns out that one( of the gay couple) we met was a top 5 star hotel manager all his days and he and his partner were going to open a small B&B once they'd (early) retired, but the other guy had to stay one for another 2 years in his high flying job in the oil industry as the money was just too much to refuse apparently. SO instead they opened their (beautiful) home as an Airbnb to give the first guy something to do and to keep him happy whilst waiting for the 2nd guys to retire. Well, all I can say is we might as well have been staying in a SIX star hotel as our stay was just out of this world as the first guy "played" at running a hotel basically. The breakfast ( he cooked) was incredible, the room/s and bedding luxurious and their company ( and wine form their wine cellar that they ended up opening for us all) was lovely - and all I seem to recall they charged something mental like 55 euro a night for that in TOTAL including breakfast !!! ( The money as you can tell wasn't their driver).

So, whilst that isn't' of course the norm that's a situation we would never have encountered and it's friends we wouldn't have made ( we still keep in touch) if we'd of just booked into the local Accor hotel option. I have another ton of similar stories of meeting nice owners and good experiences and I can't really think of any / many negative ones ( I do chose carefully where we stay and DO read the reviews and personal info on the people and places we stay.) But should you just want a "cheap" room for the night somewhere where hotels are crazy prices it's a good way of seeing a city you might otherwise avoid too.

So, yes of course hotels are always going to be a suitable option and still work for me a lot of the time too, but for something different and to see other places and meet other people ( or not if you prefer not to as you dont HAVE to meet them of course) then we find airbnb and interesting alternative sometimes.

[scottish-guy]

Do you think there's an opening for my (alleged) cold water tenement flat in the Gorbals?

I'm mostly out during the day selling car bumper stickers (3 for a £) at my paste table in the local flea market, so I wouldn't be around much.

[lonelywombat]

Had cofffee this afternoon with a group of regulars, and the conversation came around to a recently arrived BNB tenant,was asked to move his room to another condo. This was the second request in 5 weeks.
He was asked the name of the condo and they burst out laughing.It seems the "manager" also owns more than a dozen condos in the same building, and if one of his is empty, he moves a tenant not in one of his condoes to one of his own. Cant have one of my own empty condoes ,whilst somebody is paying good dollars to another person.
I was somewhat stunned by this and was told it is the greatest trick.People apply for the advertised condo and get offered one of his first , at a discount.
We had to leave before this finished but would like to know how it finishes up.

[Nirish guy]

I’m guessing that the above isn’t or wasn’t perhaps a strict Airbnb letting as you book ( and pay in advance) directly through their site as security for both parties. If it was it’s perhaps someone who has booked one or two nights there and the manager is then suggesting to them that they move to save some money. Personally I wouldn’t do that maybe as you loose any security or legal status of a booking that you originally had when booking via Airbnb - it also could end up dangerous depending on who the manager turned out to be of course !

[Nirish guy]

? I thought it was a one bed room flat you were in there but ? You do know that Airbnb frown on you letting out your OWN bedroom whilst you’re still in it don’t you !!? And as from you providing breakfast or not you’d need to consider is the corner shop close enough to alllow you to nip out and buy the mars bars for deep frying before your guest/s woke up ! I guess if they’re short of funds you could offer them a days work on one of your stalls in the Barrowland market - although whether Glasgow is big enough for TWO bumper sticker sales stalls I’m not quite sure as whilst it’s given you a ( Bare) living up until now I doubt it would sustain two incomes !

[scottish-guy]

... I guess if they’re short of funds you could offer them a days work on one of your stalls in the Barrowland market...


Barrowland Market is for the upper working class/aspiring middle class gentry.

I'm more of your Paddy's Market (no offence) trader - bumper stickers, second hand clothes, Sony Betamax tapes and stolen car radios

8470

I have a corner of the railway arch second from the left.

[frequent]

I’m guessing that the above isn’t or wasn’t perhaps a strict Airbnb letting as you book ( and pay in advance) directly through their site as security for both parties. If it was it’s perhaps someone who has booked one or two nights there and the manager is then suggesting to them that they move to save some money. Personally I wouldn’t do that maybe as you loose any security or legal status of a booking that you originally had when booking via Airbnb - it also could end up dangerous depending on who the manager turned out to be of course !All "official" AirBNB bookings and payments take place via their Web site, and there are warnings about transacting outside their site being AYOR. I suppose there are people who contact an owner via AirBNB and then the owner or the prospective renter agree to cut out AirBNB thus saving the owner his commission and the renter the odd dollar or two by initiating direct contact and direct payments. That sounds like the guy in Lonelywombat's post; like NIrish I understand it's just not something that can happen via the AirBNB site

[frequent]

Barrowland Market is for the upper working class/aspiring middle class gentry.

I'm more of your Paddy's Market (no offence) trader - bumper stickers, second hand clothes, Sony Betamax tapes and stolen car radiosI was heartened by christian's description in another post of how he dried out a used condom. Is there perhaps a market for that sort of thing?

[snotface]

... he dried out a used condom. Is there perhaps a market for that sort of thing?

Could be a business opportunity for some johnny-come-lately.

[GWMinUS]

No. I'm curious more than anything. Old people tend to fixate on things and with you it's that issue and of course, Matt.

Arsenal, you are the one who seems obsessed.
Just shut up and let people post!!!

[arsenal]

Suggestion noted.

[scottish-guy]

I was heartened by christian's description in another post of how he dried out a used condom. Is there perhaps a market for that sort of thing?

Clearly there is - you don’t think Christian bought that condom new, do you?

[sglad]

Do you think there's an opening for my (alleged) cold water tenement flat in the Gorbals?



Of course there is. Throw in a couple of free meatloaf dinners and boxed Mont Clair and you'll have to put them on a waitlist.

[Nirish guy]

Although rather than the gay Misterbnb platform it being in Scotland you would have to advertise on the local scottish platform - MiserBNB - whilst trying to charge extra for the water dripping down the walls :-)

Getting back to the main tread though....just remembered another positive reason for our using airbnb - when we go to Sitges we rent a lovely ground floor apartment ( from a gay couple with great taste in gay styling and decor etc), which has a lovely fully enclosed private outdoor BBQ area with lots of garden furniture and twinkly lights etc and after an after boon at the beach or an evening at the bars we've carried on many a lovely night there with ourselves and a few new "friends" that we've meet whilst out and about in the bars etc all returning to share a bottle of wine or three and none of that would have been possible if staying in a standard small hotel room and again all of that worked out cheaper than a comparable hotel room cost wise.

[sglad]

Although rather than the gay Misterbnb platform it being in Scotland you would have to advertise on the local scottish platform - MiserBNB - whilst trying to charge extra for the water dripping down the walls :-)

555 MiserBnB. Why? Do the Scots have a reputation for being tight with their money?

If so, with the free meatloaf and boxed wine he's going to be attracting locals (and one French Canadian)! 555

[Nirish guy]

Well I wouldn't say SG is mean but I hear his new business plan in saving money in his prospective airbnb letting is to heat his knives to be sure his guests use less butter !

[bkkguy]

Do the Scots have a reputation for being tight with their money?

I was going to reply "Is the Pope Catholic?" but that seems to be more of a controversial rather than rhetorical question these days so how about "Does a Scotish bear withhold his shit in the woods?"

bkkguy