AIRBNB IS BLOOMin’ PUSHING GOVERNMENT - HARD!

Recent sales of three-bedroom federation flats at 108 Brook Street Coogee, overlooking Coogee Oval and out to sea, saw properties valued at around the $1.45-$1.48 million mark. One of these residential dwellings is listed as three separate bedrooms with shared facilities on Airbnb’s website @ $105/room/night, or up to $2,205/week. All three bedrooms are sold as Airbnb holiday lets. It’s where landlord Lucy Bloom has turned ‘a surfers’ crash pad into a stylish home’ and where she claims she lives, along with her three children part time, “plus Airbnb customers”.

Airbnb has launched a new drive today directed specifically at the NSW Government with Lucy Bloom as their poster girl: “single mum”…”crucial income stream”…”need to protect that part of the economy”…”some regulation perfect”…NO! to a “costly registration system”…”if government took away hosts’ rights to share their homes they would be intruding on the right people have to use their home the way they like to”…for example, as illegal holiday lets which is clearly a prohibited use.

Lucy uses Facebook to advise that she has “a complainy (sic) neighbour who was behind passing a bylaw banning holiday letting ten years ago. Turns out (Lucy is) the first person to challenge the validity of that bylaw and it contradicts the legislation”. Lucy Bloom is “now an expert on Airbnb, strata law and complainy (sic) neighbours”.

Lucy Bloom is running an online petition to ‘Protect the right to share your own home and travel with Airbnb’. Lucy - ‘expert speaker, consultant and author and executive committee member of the Coogee Chamber of Commerce…and one day (would be) Mayor of Randwick’ – advises that Development Approval is “completely unnecessary under local planning laws” in the Randwick area. Some colourful language, and tweets quickly disappear from Airbnb Citizen Australia’s Twitter feed and interlocutors are blocked. Lucy also tells NZ readers that her “asset has increased in value by $600,000 since 2017”. Not bad for one of Airbnb’s single mums who is ‘just making a few extra dollars’ running hotel operations out of a residential building.

Latest figures from Inside Airbnb (25/08/19) sees 3,462 homes lost to Airbnb in the Randwick Local Government Area alone.

Airbnb’s Brent Thomas has told Business Insider Australia and The Australian about a new batch of ‘safety initiatives’ that let law enforcement request information about platform users. This would appear to be yet another marketing ploy and PR exercise as the Company doesn’t verify the identity of its platform users. Airbnb’s Terms of Service clearly state:

“Any references to a Member being "verified" (or similar language) only indicate that the Member has completed a relevant verification or identification process and nothing else. Any such description is not an endorsement, certification or guarantee by Airbnb about any Member, including of the Member's identity or background or whether the Member is trustworthy, safe or suitable…”

Still, Airbnb manages plenty of national media exposure, no matter the complete lack of substance in their claims.

UK and other international Media continue to shed light on the activities of this US$31 billion outfit: Airbnb is massively failing travellers with disabilities.

When next travelling, please stay with an accredited accommodation provider.