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  • Hey, there.

  • Welcome to my Airbnb.

  • My name is Zane. Alan, right?

  • Actually, it's Adam.

  • Weird, never heard that name before.

  • Let me show you around.

  • There's the bathroom.

  • I provide everything except toilet paper.

  • Before toilet paper, some Americans used corn cobs.

  • Okay, uh, over here, I have a ton of DVDs.

  • So, I hope you brought your DVD player.

  • This is the bedroom.

  • I painted these.

  • Yeah, this whole place is like a gallery of my own art.

  • Man, Airbnb rules.

  • Yeah. It sure does.

  • Apart from the massive legal liability, of course.

  • Lia, what now?

  • Well, Airbnb would have us believe it's a hospitality

  • utopia and better than a hotel in every way.

  • But the fact is, their business model endangers guests,

  • enables crooks and could leave you on the hook

  • for anything I do here.

  • But I thought they insured me or whatever.

  • Not always.

  • In many cases, Airbnb has refused to pay for damages.

  • One guest crammed a bunch of stuff down the owner's toilet,

  • causing $10,000 in damage.

  • (plopping)

  • (flushing)

  • But Airbnb only offered to pay 78 bucks.

  • Hey!

  • I'm sorry.

  • You know, I'm realizing this is a pattern of behavior.

  • In another case, a guest refused to leave the property.

  • And became a squatter.

  • This is my house now!

  • After Airbnb wouldn't help,

  • the host was forced to hire an expensive lawyer to evict them.

  • I've been here so long

  • that my skin fused to your laundry basket.

  • (laughing)

  • But the risks guests take is even worse.

  • Hotels are required to undergo routine safety inspections.

  • But no one checks Airbnbs for working sprinklers,

  • fire alarms,

  • (clicking)

  • carbon monoxide detectors

  • or fire exits.

  • What the--

  • I told you that's art.

  • Airbnb will actually send a photographer

  • to take pictures of your house...

  • (grunts)

  • But they don't send anyone to make sure that it's safe.

  • In 2013, at least six Airbnb guests

  • suffered carbon monoxide poisoning, and one of them died.

  • Oh.

  • And we don't even know the total number of people who have

  • been hurt because Airbnb refuses to release the numbers.

  • Well, you take your chances when you get a deal this good.

  • Yeah, you do, but not everyone gets the same deal.

  • Airbnb let you see my name and picture

  • before you approved me, right?

  • They sure did.

  • Well, Sears does wonderful work.

  • The problem is this enables discrimination.

  • One study found that guests with black sounding names

  • were 16% less likely to be approved as Airbnb guests.

  • Wait, was that white family lying

  • when they said I couldn't stay with them?

  • (gasping)

  • Was there no emergency yoga retreat?

  • I'm afraid not.

  • Nondiscrimination in hotels

  • was something the civil rights movement fought for for decades.

  • That's why in a traditional hotel,

  • this kind of treatment is illegal.

  • But at Airbnb, the bad old days are back again.

  • That is so (bleep) up.

  • Yeah, it is.

  • And it doesn't end there.

  • Because Airbnb is particularly bad for cities.

  • If landlords had their way,

  • they would make every apartment a vacation rental.

  • Of course I would.https://tw.voicetube.com/translate/7377#

  • Tourists pay a lot more than tenants.

  • But that drives up my rent.

  • I can't afford to live in a dang hotel.

  • (Adam) So, to protect residents, cities passed laws

  • that limit vacation rentals in apartment buildings.

  • (siren blares)

  • Problems is, Airbnb doesn't respect those laws.

  • A 2014 report found that nearly three out of four Airbnb rentals

  • in New York City were illegal.

  • I'm not a criminal, I'm an artist.

  • Sure, you may be an artist,

  • but a lot of Airbnb hosts are con artists.

  • Zane, this is Roy Samaan.

  • He researches housing issues at LAANE,

  • a Los Angeles based advocacy group.

  • Adam's right, Airbnb is used

  • heavily by shady characters who use the service

  • to run illegal hotel chains.

  • They take out multiple leases in different buildings

  • and Airbnb those units year round.

  • (man) I just making little cash when I'm out of town.

  • (Adam) These jerks take critical residential housing

  • out of the market which drives up rent for all of us.

  • And Airbnb does nothing to stop 'em.

  • There was even a case in L.A. where a landlord

  • evicted an entire apartment building

  • so he could rent out the rooms on Airbnb.

  • Left unregulated, Airbnb can destroy entire neighborhoods.

  • I don't know, bro.

  • Is it on Airbnb to control what their users do?

  • Airbnb is a big tech company

  • and they can filter out illegal listings very easily.

  • Instead, they're putting the burden on us and on cities

  • to go one by one and sue these landlords to make sure

  • they're not breaking the law, and that just isn't fair.

  • Thanks, Roy.

  • Hey, Adam, can I come in?

  • My arms are getting really tired.

  • Oh, it's not actually my place, so...

  • I don't know you, bro.

  • (window closes, Roy screams)

  • Not only does Airbnb know about these crooks,

  • they actually take a cut.

  • I can't believe we let them get away with this.

  • If three out of four Craigslist users were using the site

  • to commit murder, we'd be, like,

  • "Somebody stop that murder website?!

  • I want them killed with a knife, oh,

  • from behind for under $100 a stab.

  • Not only does Airbnb profit from illegal activity,

  • they've even secretly purged the records

  • of illegal listings from data they've released

  • to make it look like it's not happening.

  • Wow.

  • That's not icy.

  • That's straight-up dicey.

  • It's a shame because Airbnb actually provides

  • a valuable service.

  • Like, in remote areas that don't have hotels.

  • But they also need to be a good neighbor.

  • And right now, they're doing the opposite.

  • Damn.

  • Thanks, Alan.

  • It's Adam, and no problem.

  • I can rest easy tonight

  • knowing I've taught one person the truth.

  • You're not staying here.

  • I cancelled the reservation five minutes ago.

  • You blew up my toilet, remember?

  • But where will I stay now?!

  • I don't know, man, sleep on the street.

  • Well, everything we know about homelessness is wrong.

  • I could talk about that.

Hey, there.

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