Jon Faine skewers Airbnb as ‘parasites and predators’

Finally, the mainstream media is not buying the Airbnb BS.  Have a listen to the the $30 billion global letting agency’s talking head Brent Thomas squirm as ABC Melbourne’s Jon Faine nails them on their failure to pay tax in Australia.

“If I was the Premier, I would refuse to meet you,” has to be the quote of the year.

LISTEN TO IT HERE

Meanwhile, in the Flat Chat column currently running online in the AFR I refer to having “previous convictions”.  If you want to read the whole charge sheet, laying out my research, findings and opinions on Airbnb, start HERE.

It’s interesting that other branches of the media are becoming a bit sceptical of Airbnb’s dubious and relentlessly repeated message that they are all about ordinary people letting rooms in their homes (while they are fighting tooth and nail to force apartment blocks to accept short-term lets of whole apartments, their main source of income).

Now News Ltd journalists are faithfully trotting out any statistics from Airbnb-paid “surveys” as if they are fact.  But it’s just a matter of time.  Wait till News realises that Clover Moore (bless her organic fair-trade cotton socks) is pro-Airbnb … then the worm will turn.

Personally, my views on Airbnb have evolved over the past few years.  I have gone from being largely pro the idea of legitimate sharing to very anti the TRUE intent of Airbnb which is to force us to accept holiday lets in our homes and force us to share our facilities with complete strangers over whom we and the hosts have no control.

We have planning laws that were evolved over many years precisely to spare communities from this kind of exploitation.  I bought an apartment in a residential-only building. If the government wants to change its status to “de facto hotel”, just to appear trendy and pour money into private investors’ pockets, they can expect a much bigger backlash that the vague pathetic threats issued recently by the Airbnb attack poodles.

Dammit, I might run for parliament myself.  Now THAT is a threat to democracy!

 

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