Last week, I wrote about being an Airbnb host for Gambit. You can read the essay here. I tried to honestly depict, in 800 words, what it’s like to have strangers present almost constantly in my house. I wanted to answer the questions I’d had before I started hosting, so that if readers were considering their own Airbnb side hustle, they’d walk away more informed.
Well. It was pretty much a shit show. There was this…
And a lot more Twitter vitriol (Twittriol?). AND I just found this reporting Robert McClendon did for the Times-Picayune…about my writing. Read it here.
When I wasn’t hunched over my computer scowling and sizzling with adrenaline, I was pleased. I wrote something and people read it and felt things, even if it was only their “head exploding” because of how bad my writing is. I have never, ever gotten this much Internet hate, and it was kind of awesome. Also, the haters have valid points. “Life-giving sediment” is WAY overwritten. I’m pretty embarrassed I didn’t edit myself better. McClendon points out I didn’t address the illegality of Airbnb, which does bear mentioning. So I’ll do that now, in this here blog.
I do a lot of illegal shit, like most people. I run stop signs, smoke weed and illegally download movies instead of paying $15 to see them at The Shops at Canal Place. SOMETIMES ALL AT THE SAME TIME.* Airbnb is definitely among my favorite illegal things to do, because it’s making me rich. The question I ask myself before undertaking any questionable activity isn’t whether I’m obeying the law, but whether I feel I am making a moral choice. Whether I am Doing Unto Others as I would have them Do Unto Me. So, if ALL my neighbors were to all start Airbnbing their houses, would that be, like, cool with me?
Obviously, I’m going to say yes. But it’s a conditional yes. And the condition is a strong one.
I support Airbnb in owner-occupied homes in New Orleans. I do not support Airbnb in properties leased solely for the purpose of short-term rentals in New Orleans. The former can potentially stabilize neighborhoods by putting money in homeowners’ pockets. The latter turns neighborhoods into hotels, as so many articles bemoan.
San Francisco recently passed legislation stating Airbnb operators “must be the Permanent Resident (owner or tenant) of the residential unit that you wish to rent short-term.” Operators have to register their unit with the county, and they’re limited to one. I would love to see a similar ordinance in New Orleans. But we don’t have one, and according to reporting by my colleagues and homie gs Kevin Allman and Alex Woodward, “the issue is off the front burner for now.”
Until then, locals have to let their conscience, an entity as whimsical and occasionally drunken as New Orleans itself, be their guide.
*JOKES.
Missy You are not the average AIr BNB . You have been here for years .You contribute to New Orleans in so many ways. Your in Gris Gris Strut .You write about the area contribute to people in the area .You live in your rental and its small .You are what the Air BNB was for locals who live in the rental to allow people to experience the New Orleans locals do. .for that to happen one needs to be a long time local ,you are .many are not even in the city. You didn’t displace any renters you built that house on an vacant lot that was an eyesore.. You have stuck with thru thick and thin. When you opened your home to tourists it hadn’t become an industry. You didn’t put any of these facts in your story. I am against having all those people doing a real estate feeding frenzy on this neighborhood. I wish they would go away.We have a true Air BNB on Alvar .Its not fair to compare it to many of the others who evict people in a frenzy of greed. Missy We know you would never do that.