Demand for housing in my city is going down. Many buildings being built are sitting 3/4 empty. So why the fuck are landlords offering gift cards to coffee shops instead of lowering rent?
A thing you make money by renting out goes on the books as a particular multiple of its rent value. If it's standing empty, you can use the rent you got last time you had a tenant. If you lower the rent, the value on your balance sheet goes down.
And while the value stays up, you can borrow against it.
Our #airbnb session at #geomobLON the other day seemed to hit a nerve...well two nerves really: the "human rights" nerve, swiftly followed by the "property rights" reflex. As Ed mentions here, casting airbnb as a villain of the housing market is missing the point as the new-enclosure precedes them, but the #technofeudalist perspective does galvanise debate.
With inflation now down to just over 3%, but rents last month hitting a new high of 9% rises (annually), the idea that it is workers who are driving inflation is dealt another blow.... rather renters (who as Posted yesterday are often also in insecure work) are being squeezed further by pay rises outside their ability to deal with.
But of course, a Govt. of landlords will not being doing anything to try & retain such behaviour!
TIL "#boycott - to refuse to do business with, as a sign of disapproval. The #eponym inspiration was Captain Charles Boycott (1832-97), an Irish land agent so treated in 1880, in an attempt by the Irish Land League to get a break on #rent." https://www.visualthesaurus.com/?word=boycott
The gig is up! We need to go back to basic consumer protections.
#Airbnb host, rated perfect 5.0 on the site, delayed check-in time 8 hours after receiving payment (among other things, like changing the household sharing arrangements and saying he wasn't the sole admin of the account and so wasn't responsible - clear deal-breakers), and then he refused to cancel the reservation at his end so I could get a refund. I escalated through Airbnb and the initial help was sympathetic but nothing since.
#Uber also left us hanging recently, canceling a res only AFTER the 4am pickup time for the airport, in the middle of nowhere.
It feels like the last 20 years have been a failed experiment. We see who's profited and who has paid (and who's taxed).
Now we have to start over. Swearing off Twitter Amazon Google Meta YouTube Spotify Microsoft Airbnb all at once, so many huge apps that we have let into our lives, is like a reverse revolution. Sudden and extreme. And I am mad as hell about it.
Hmm, why does my #Airbnb host (for the apartment in Vienna I already checked out from, and already exchanged messages with after that) send me a WhatsApp message from Pakistan? Something fishy?
Are scammers following Mastodon for toots about people staying in #Airbnb and then send them WhatsApp messages pretending to be the host, no doubt then trying some trick ”oh I need $$ to cover the extra cleaning cost you filthy pig”? I did after all use the tag #Airbnb so maybe they are looking for such…
Ah, no scam involved, just the ”host” (which is some company with dozens of apartments in Vienna) outsourcing the work. In Airbnb’s internal messaging they pretend to be ”Peter” but in WhatsApp the real location shows up;)
”Hi Tor, You have received message from our virtual assistant team. They [meaning ’we’, most likely] are from Pakistan. Thank you for cooperation.”
having stayed in an airbnb that was a metal caboose, in Eastern OR in the fall, it had serious climate control issues. Way too hot during the day and frigid at night. I suspect a bus would be about the same.
When the #white#neighbors found my landlord and threatened to call the #police on me, I could have been #homeless. They have not renewed my lease and being a WOC its much harder to find a home where someone is willing to house you even for a ransom #rent. When I say people are evil, they may not be horrible people at the core but they don't care about the consequences of their actions. They never have to live with it, we take the brunt of their consequences. #racism
#rent rises are rippling out of urban centres, making suburbs & commuter towns even more expensive.... across the country the #housingcrisis continues to worsen as rents #inflation outstrips pay rises.
But hey, the BoE will still be focussing on those pesky workers demanding some claw back of their standard of living.
And, even 'reasonable' landlords will have been forced to put up rents dues to mortgage costs for their properties - the BoE's very own vicious circle
Of all the fucked up "feel good" news stories I've seen lately, this one takes the cake.
A third grade teacher in North Carolina, named Shelby Lattimore, is requiring her students to do jobs for her to earn fake dollar bills, which she then requires them to pay back to her as "rent" in exchange for being "allowed" to do other things she also requires them to do, like literally sitting in a chair. But it's totally cool, because they can also use any "money" they have left over to buy permission to do things they're apparently not allowed to do normally, like eat lunch with their best friend, "sit on the carpet", or switch to a different seat if they don't like the student she normally forces them to sit next to. They can also purchase "free time", or - the most expensive item on the list - exercise authority over their classmates that is normally reserved for the teacher.
Lattimore then posts videos of herself doing this on TikTok, which are apparently popular enough that between ad revenue and "brand collabs" (which I'm 100% sure all her students gave fully voluntary and informed consent to being exploited for), she makes enough money (six figures last year, she says in the video linked below!) that she can afford to just be a school teacher without having to get a second job! And her students are learning that all they need to do to escape "generational poverty" is to "think long-term" about budgeting their money. So see, it's a heartwarmer!
If there's anyone in my network who has experience using Printify and Etsy, please drop me a line. I'm starting on an idea and would appreciate some help. #Prinitfy#Etsy#SideHustle
