CITY OF SYDNEY – AIRBNB MASTERCLASS

While the City of Sydney’s senior Legal staff are not permitted to discuss zoning violations with ratepayers, and Councillors fail to acknowledge correspondence seeking aid, City of Sydney Council, reportedly part of Airbnb’s “most penetrated market in the world”, is promoting Master Classes for would be short-term rental millionaires.

Residential landlords looking to engage in the “Illegal Use of Premises” by emptying homes of tenants and running unlawful hotels can join Million Dollar Host Julie George from Host My Home, Charmaine Smith who, having reportedly sold over $350 million dollars worth of Sydney’s finest real estate, will inspire and inform on being Airbnb ready for retirement, and Deborah de Jong. Deborah, a former Qantas Flight attendant suggests: “If anyone knows what makes a great bedroom its (sic) a hostie.” Deborah will share her tips and tricks on creating a Stand out Airbnb.

Bookings available for the Airbnb Masterclass via the City of Sydney’s website here.

In other news, Airbnb for swimming pools has launched in Australia. Having raised $1.7 million from investors, Swimply Australia will be the first international market for the start-up. A prominent Sydney architect predicts “all manner of issues arising - #airbnb…privacy issues, unregulated pool parties, sanitation, unattended kids, drowning incidents…hate to think of the insurance risks”.

For the second year, Hobart has been named Australia’s least affordable city for renters. Ellen Witte from SGS Economics and Planning said: “Hobart should build more public housing...and issue an immediate halt on allowing more houses to be offered for short-term rental accommodation.” And the ABC reports today that Adelaide has overtaken Sydney as the second-most-unaffordable capital city for renters.

Following the shooting deaths of five attendees at an Airbnb party the company’s CEO announced it would “manually screen (4 million listings) for high risk reservations and create a rapid response team to take action against violators” - see video. It isn’t clear how Airbnb will define “party houses” and how they will place ‘rapid response teams’ around the globe. It is also unclear how such listings would remain delisted; Airbnb landlords share tips on social media on registering a property under the wrong address and confirming directly with clients the actual address only after booking confirmation…then ‘simply delist the property and relist under a different name, location and change photos’.

Many tips and tricks are promised when one registers via the City of Sydney for an Airbnb Masterclass.