Airb2b in Paris

Old Feb 22nd, 2015, 07:06 AM
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Airb2b in Paris

Has anyone used the Airb2b service to book a place in Paris? We are traveling in August and would like to be in a central location in Paris as we only have 2 full days to see sites. We've seen some nice centralized flats available through Airb2b for $180 - $200/night. Have never used this service before so not sure if this is the way to go or if we should book a hotel. Thoughts?

Thanks!
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Old Feb 22nd, 2015, 08:03 AM
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Be aware that many of the properties advertised on AirBnB are illegal rentals.
https://www.google.ca/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=...+paris+illegal

Since Airbnb knowingly list illegal rentals on their site, it is up to you to determine if the rental you are looking at is legal or not.

Besides the moral question of participating in an illegal activity, there are several other potential repercussions. The renter could get caught the week before you arrive and suddenly your booking is cancelled. Even worse, an inspector can arrive while you are there and inform you it is an illegal rental. Neighbours aware it is an Airbnb rental may well make it clear to you that you are not welcome in their building.
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Old Feb 22nd, 2015, 08:12 AM
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For two days, I'd go with a hotel.
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Old Feb 22nd, 2015, 08:14 AM
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We have our
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Old Feb 22nd, 2015, 08:16 AM
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Paris rental with air b&b for 4 days.

We used specialapartments.com

But I agree, you probably should consider a hotel for 2 days.

Happy planning.
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Old Feb 22nd, 2015, 08:22 AM
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For just two days a hotel would be better.

(BTW -- one doesn't rent from airbnb. It is just a listing site like vrbo. You are renting from individual owners so whether it is a nice apartment, or a responsive owner, or is actually as depicted in the photos . . . all depends on the person you are dealing with, not on airbnb)
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Old Feb 22nd, 2015, 09:00 AM
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we have been looking at VRBO and some look great
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Old Feb 22nd, 2015, 09:38 AM
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For two full days, you should stay in a hotel. Most all short term (less than 12 month) rentals are illegal in Paris and there has been a big enforcement push by the mayor´s office to curb the practice.

If you like the idea of having cooking facilities as part of your accommodation, take a look at Citadine or Adagio apartments.
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Old Feb 22nd, 2015, 11:21 AM
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I'd agree that two day stay should use a hotel. We stay at the Citadines near the Louvre and were quite happy.
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Old Feb 22nd, 2015, 11:36 AM
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We stayed at an Airbnb in Paris for 5 nights last Spring and had a good experience. (Marais location near Picasso museum.) There may be limitations on just staying 2 nights. I like the AIRBNB concept and it has worked well for us in NYC, Paris and next will be London. It may be true that for shorter stays it's not worth doing. Overall, we have loved our experience for getting well located, better priced places with kitchen convenience. Frankly, hotels can disappoint and are expensive. We mix it up. If we want service and style, we stay at a nice hotel. if we want to save $ and use it as a base of operation, we book Airbnb.

I'm not sure about recent restriction in Paris... so research it!
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Old Feb 22nd, 2015, 11:49 AM
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annealex: >> I like the AIRBNB concept and it has worked well for us in NYC, . . .
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Old Feb 22nd, 2015, 11:55 AM
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In cities in France with a population of 200,000 or more and also in the départements that surround Paris apartments can't be rented for less than one year, or 9 months to students, unless it is the owners main residence in which case it can be rented for up to 4 months of the year. There are other ways to get around this (buying an equivalent amount of commercial space and converting it to residential space) but it makes it virtually economically unfeasible.

The only thing people need to know is that no matter whether you are using a reputable agency or VRBO or AirBnB etc. is that the overwhelming majority of the short term apartment rentals in Paris are illegal. It's always been this way but only in recent years has city hall decided to crack down on this. Agencies have nothing to do with whether or not the apartment is legal and there is no such thing as a registry to list your apartment with the city. You are either in compliance with the law or you are not. So if you are renting an apt. in Paris the odds are overwhelmingly high that you are staying in an illegal rental.

BTW, I'm not making a judgement on anyone who wants to rent an apt. (I would probably do so myself if I were a visitor to Paris) but I keep seeing lots of misinformation about rental apts. in Paris on the various travel forums in which I participate.
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Old Feb 22nd, 2015, 12:52 PM
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It's Airbnb I presume, not airb2b.

I can't imagine why you'd need an apt for only a two night stay. Many Parisian apts do NOT have A/C, either, and it's easy to find a hotel that will. IN fact, August is the low rate season for hotels, I often get about 25 pct off in August, so if I were you, I'd take advantage of that fact. I would say AirBnB is slightly more of a service than VRBO from what I've heard, in that they hold the money in escrow or something that is a bit of a safeguard. I don't believe VRBO does anything, it's just an ad website.
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Old Feb 22nd, 2015, 01:38 PM
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It's always been this way but only in recent years has city hall decided to crack down on this.

True but much of the current law, to include how one obtains approval for a legal short term rental and penalties for noncompliance, was passed as recently as last year.

there is no such thing as a registry to list your apartment with the city.

There is indeed a list, albeit a short list, and much of the recent enforcement activity is aimed at explaining to owners the required steps to legally offer their properties as short term rentals. Many owners have not anxiously included their properties on the city´s list (actually each arrondissement keeps a list so there are 20) because many of them will not be able to comply with the strict requirements and will ultimately be forced either to sell their apartments or convert them to regular rentals with contracts for a period of not fewer than 12 months, 9 months for students.

To my knowledge the city´s consolidated list of approved short term rental apartments is not available on line but may be obtained by calling the Direction du développement économique de l´emploi et de l´enseignement supérieur (DDEEES) at 01 71 19 20 08.

As a larger number of apartments qualify as legal short term rentals, I assume that the list will be more easily available to tourists. In the meantime, advertisements for or information concerning legal short term apartments must reference the apartment lodging tax, similar to the hotel tax, which is €1 or €2 per person per night. Apartment listings, not including specific information about the lodging tax, likely represent properties not legally rented.
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Old Feb 23rd, 2015, 02:30 AM
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Sarastro - Since I live in Paris, I just called the number you mentioned. The gentleman told me that he does not have any list, and is not aware that such a list has been compiled by the City or anyone else.
He said that there is a list of requirements that must be met for anyone wishing to convert his property to short-term rental, and that is available online from the Mayor's website.
He suggested I call two other numbers: 01 42 76 30 33 (Direction de l'Office d'Habitation) and 01 42 76 36 53 (Direction de l'Office des Finances). I called them both, and each said that no such list exists.
Can you explain where you got your information?
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Old Feb 23rd, 2015, 06:16 AM
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We booked an Airbnb place in Paris last August; it said check-in was 5pm but we needed to drop bags at 3pm, so 10 days prior I wrote and asked if we could. Two days later no response, but we get a form letter from Airbnb saying people should write a week prior to make sure the booking is OK and if there is any last-minute info from the host. So I write again, and another 3 days go by without a response (also left phone messages on his voicemail).

We're leaving in a couple days, still haven't heard from the host, so we cancelled. We didn't want to be stuck with our luggage for a couple hours - - and wondering if the host had gone completely AWOL.

Instead I got a real nice 3* using express deals on Priceline. It was close to 50e/night/double, it was right by the Place de Clichy metro - - it was pleasant, pretty, clean, and comfortable (I only book properties rated 7+ or higher in Express Deals).

I contacted Airbnb and asked them to refund their commission, since the host was unresponsive. They said the host is a good host, and that he was "just travelling" during that time that we kept trying to contact him (mails and also phone calls). I mean, I travel too, but I still check my e-mail daily - - and I'm not the one running the business.
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Old Feb 23rd, 2015, 06:48 AM
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manouche - I wrote through the mayor´s office website. Here is the response I received reference to the list of sanctioned apartments:

_____________________


Monsieur

Suite à votre courriel, cette liste est en effet disponible pour le public : elle est centralisée à la DDEEES (Direction du développement économique, de l’emploi et de l'enseignement supérieur), et nous tenons un tableau des déclarants par arrondissement.

Il convient cependant de noter que cette liste est très incomplète, puisque très peu de gens pratiquant la location saisonnière se déclarent en mairie.

Vous pouvez joindre le bureau du commerce du tourisme en appelant l'accueil de la DDEEES au 01 71 19 20 08.


Cordialement,

L’Equipe Messages des Parisiens,

_____________________


As the letter states, few apartment owners have actually contacted the city to register the apartments they rent. What I had read earlier was that the city would keep a list of owners who were in full compliance with the law. I shouldn´t expect the list, if it exits and if anyone can find it, to be terribly long. The thrust of the law appears to want to make housing more affordable and available to families living in Paris. It does not seem to be written to benefit tourists wanting to avoid staying in hotels.
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Old Feb 23rd, 2015, 07:48 AM
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What started out as a good idea has unfortunately been overtaken by unscrupulous exploiters in it only for profit. The name Airbnb came about when 2 guys decided to offer to share their apartment with visitors during a major event in San Francisco. All hotels etc. were basicically full so they offered an AIRBED on the floor. An idea was born. Why not SHARE your space when a need exists. A perfectly good idea.

The B&B part is well known as meaning bed & breakfast. Again though, that is what has been overtaken by exploiters simply renting a property but not being present themselves on that property. An actual B&B is accepted everywhere including New York and Paris. But you have to be present on the property during the visitor's stay. Most of the listing on Airbnb today are NOT bed & breakfast properties at all. Many people do not understand this difference. An actual B&B is legal if you are there SHARING your property with the visitor.

No one even got excited when a few people were renting out their property while they were away on business or a vacation for a week or two a few times a year. It is not these 'small time' absentee listers that are the problem. It is as I said the exploiters who are the problem.

To understand just how big a problem they are, take a look at the following article on NYC where Airbnb were forced to hand over information which could then be analyzed. You will see that 6% of listers were multiple listers. That is one person offering more than one property for rent by the night. Does that sound like someone just trying to make a few extra bucks to you?

What's more, those 6% account for 37% of all revenue. More than 100 listers had more than 10 units for rent each and they took in $60M in 4 years! One lister has 272 listings and took in $6.8M alone.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenhue...s-are-illegal/

What started out as a reasonable idea has been taken over by exploiters who are not about participating in a 'sharing economy', they're all about making a lot of money. If you rent from them, you are enabling them.

Re the list you guys are arguing over. Lists of legal rentals do exist. Any listing on http://www.gites-de-france.com/ for example will be a legal rental since they screen members before listing them. More info here:
http://paris.angloinfo.com/informati...unning-a-gite/

The only list I would expect the city to have is a list of business licenses. They won't have a list as such, intended to hand out to tourists looking for a place to stay. I do know that the city of Paris has been encouraging those who are licensed, to include their license in any advertising they do including on listing sites such as Airbnb, VRBO, et al.
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Old Feb 23rd, 2015, 07:48 AM
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What started out as a good idea has unfortunately been overtaken by unscrupulous exploiters in it only for profit. The name Airbnb came about when 2 guys decided to offer to share their apartment with visitors during a major event in San Francisco. All hotels etc. were basicically full so they offered an AIRBED on the floor. An idea was born. Why not SHARE your space when a need exists. A perfectly good idea.

The B&B part is well known as meaning bed & breakfast. Again though, that is what has been overtaken by exploiters simply renting a property but not being present themselves on that property. An actual B&B is accepted everywhere including New York and Paris. But you have to be present on the property during the visitor's stay. Most of the listing on Airbnb today are NOT bed & breakfast properties at all. Many people do not understand this difference. An actual B&B is legal if you are there SHARING your property with the visitor.

No one even got excited when a few people were renting out their property while they were away on business or a vacation for a week or two a few times a year. It is not these 'small time' absentee listers that are the problem. It is as I said the exploiters who are the problem.

To understand just how big a problem they are, take a look at the following article on NYC where Airbnb were forced to hand over information which could then be analyzed. You will see that 6% of listers were multiple listers. That is one person offering more than one property for rent by the night. Does that sound like someone just trying to make a few extra bucks to you?

What's more, those 6% account for 37% of all revenue. More than 100 listers had more than 10 units for rent each and they took in $60M in 4 years! One lister has 272 listings and took in $6.8M alone.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenhue...s-are-illegal/

What started out as a reasonable idea has been taken over by exploiters who are not about participating in a 'sharing economy', they're all about making a lot of money. If you rent from them, you are enabling them.

Re the list you guys are arguing over. Lists of legal rentals do exist. Any listing on http://www.gites-de-france.com/ for example will be a legal rental since they screen members before listing them. More info here:
http://paris.angloinfo.com/informati...unning-a-gite/

The only list I would expect the city to have is a list of business licenses. They won't have a list as such, intended to hand out to tourists looking for a place to stay. I do know that the city of Paris has been encouraging those who are licensed, to include their license in any advertising they do including on listing sites such as Airbnb, VRBO, et al.
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Old Feb 23rd, 2015, 07:51 AM
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Obviously there is conflicting info depending on who you call/write, a classic case of different bureaucratic agencies not being in touch with or coordinating with one another (reminds me of préfecture). At any rate, the requirements to create a legal short term rental are so restrictive and cost prohibitive that as I mentioned earlier, it is essentially totally economically unfeasible to do so in the overwhelming majority of cases.
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