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upnflames t1_jcg8myz wrote

Reply to comment by mowotlarx in Nearly 1,500 buildings ban Airbnb and other short-term rentals by fluffykintail

Airbnb is becoming a catchall term for STR's these days - truth is, you really don't need Airbnb to stay booked anymore. All you need is a direct booking website and a small budget for Instagram ads. That's how I get about half of my bookings. My rental is legitimately registered with the town it's in, so I'm fine either way, but there is literally no enforcement of anything on the direct side. It would be damn near impossible for a city to catch it if that's the only place you listed.

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HonestPerspective638 t1_jcgcr0s wrote

they can make the fine and penalty so punative you would reconsider taking the chance... eventually they will find a way to track. Itnot that hard without giving away too much

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upnflames t1_jcgff3o wrote

I mean, they could. They probably won't though. They can barely do it when it's handed to them through a multi billion dollar company, the odds of them tracking a direct booking through a private site is slim to none.

The person doesn't even have to be a US citizen to pull this off. Create a US LLC, rent the apartment through a broker, hire a shady property manager under the table and run the whole thing remotely. The only reason people use Airbnb is because it's easy. If they made it harder, people would just go around.

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