Your say on the rise of short-stay rentals, Airbnb, Stayz

Canberra visitors and residents share their views on short-stay rentals, such as Airbnb and Stayz.

Transcript

00:00 Yeah, we're from Melbourne and we've just come to see Canberra basically for a couple of nights.

00:05 So I actually started, because there's two of us and normally we go away in big groups,

00:08 I actually started looking at hotels, like I'll probably just get a hotel room.

00:13 I looked at like, spent a while to be fair looking at like hotels and then I was like,

00:16 hang on, I'll just have a quick look on Airbnb.

00:18 And basically for the exact same price that we were about to spend on a hotel,

00:21 we actually have like a lush Airbnb.

00:23 Yeah, it's nice.

00:24 It's so nice. It's like a Barbie dream house. It's all pink.

00:26 It's like two bedrooms and we have like so much space.

00:30 And we just got quite a good deal. So I'm a big fan of Airbnb to be honest.

00:34 Well, overall, I'm against them, but just based on my own experience as a consumer,

00:38 I've used them on a number of occasions.

00:41 And the most common problem I've had with them is that the difficulty to get into and out of,

00:46 because the security surrounding them.

00:49 Parking is often difficult.

00:52 There's nobody there to fix things.

00:55 So as a consumer, I wouldn't use them anymore.

00:58 Maybe on rare occasions when you're going to stay somewhere for a long time.

01:03 And apart from that, there is the general problem about them taking accommodation

01:07 from people who are looking for it on a long term basis.

01:10 Do you think there should be any restrictions on them?

01:14 Well, I mean, I think that really comes down to the extent to which they restrict

01:19 accommodation for people seeking long term living.

01:23 And from what I read in the newspapers, yes, that is a problem.

01:26 So I suppose there ought to be some restriction on them.

01:29 Used them before. Yes, like them, convenient.

01:34 And I suppose it's like the Uber for the taxi world,

01:39 where the taxis are sort of, you know, everyone's got their own opinion on those.

01:42 And I think it's definitely the competition's being good for the consumer.

01:47 So, yeah, I think Airbnb's the same.

01:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]