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There are dozens of Frank Lloyd Wright houses across the country that fans of the architect can visit. There are a handful that can be rented. There is only one where you can sleep overnight for $148, which includes a personal guided tour by the 90-year-old owner and breakfast in a Wright-designed “great room.”
The Cooke House in Virginia Beach, Va., built in 1959, is one of Wright’s last commissioned works.
— The New York Times
For more on Frank Lloyd Wright:Lloyd Wright's LA Samuel-Novarro House for saleWhen 'Frank Lloyd Wright' and 'historic designation' are holding back your home’s value, what’s a seller to do?New Jersey’s Oldest and Largest Frank Lloyd Wright House Listed for $2.2M View full entry
Landlords have had a gripe with Airbnb for a while. The sharing platform facilitates subletting apartments without their consent or knowledge, not to mention a cut of the profits. Now, Airbnb is hoping to make amends by rolling out a new initiative dubbed the 'Airbnb Friendly Building Program'... View full entry
Minimalist furniture. Craft beer and avocado toast. Reclaimed wood. Industrial lighting. Cortados [...]
The interchangeability, ceaseless movement, and symbolic blankness that was once the hallmark of hotels and airports, qualities that led the French anthropologist Marc Augé to define them in 1992 as "non-places," has leaked into the rest of life. [...]
This confluence of style is being accelerated by companies that foster a sense of placelessness … Airbnb is a prominent example.
— theverge.com
Nicholas Korody previously explored this phenomenon, of supposedly idiosyncratic Airbnb styling converging on the generic.Related on Archinect:Airbnb turns to urban planning as it looks towards the future of home-sharingAfter allegations of racial discrimination and #AirbnbWhileBlack fallout... View full entry
Today, Airbnb is revealing a new division tasked with inventing new futures for the company, called Samara. Airbnb is also unveiling Samara’s first project: a communal housing project designed to revitalize a small town in Japan. That model isn’t meant to be a one-off. After this project, Airbnb will look to scale it to other declining small towns across the world. The idea is that Airbnb could become a force not only in sharing homes, but in urban planning. — FastCo.Design
Airbnb's experiment in urban planning was sparked by the success of an elderly woman in a rural Japanese town, Tsuyama Okayama, who listed her home on the site. While near Japan's most famous cedar forests, the town didn't receive many tourists.But build it and they will come: soon, tourists... View full entry
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D), the senior Senator from Massachusetts, has co-signed a letter requesting that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigate the degree to which short-term lodging services are composed of "persons or firms acting in a commercial manner by renting out entire... View full entry
City attorney Mike Feuer has filed criminal charges against Carol Jean Alsman, a local property owner, for allegedly forcing out tenants in rent-controlled units and then listing the units for rent on Airbnb. [...]
[Feuer’s] office has lodged civil complaints against three other Los Angeles property owners for allegedly using their buildings as illegal hotels [...]
“In a city with a profound shortage of affordable housing, unlawfully converting rental units to operate hotels has got to stop”
— qz.com
Related on Archinect:After allegations of racial discrimination and #AirbnbWhileBlack fallout, Airbnb looks inwardAirbnb invests in a blockchain futureAirbnb intentionally misconstrued data to "garner good press", according to new reportBarcelona plans shakedown scheme against unlicensed Airbnb... View full entry
[Airbnb] says it will spend the next several months reviewing how hosts and guests interact on the site and what it could do to ensure users are treated more fairly. [...]
"The bottom line is that the design of platforms dictates the decisions that people make on them. Even if there’s implicit bias, [Airbnb has] an enormous amount of ability to change the extent of discrimination on the platform."
— washingtonpost.com
For more on the controversial P2P renting service:Airbnb invests in a blockchain futureYou may have Airbnb to thank for that low hotel rateAirbnb intentionally misconstrued data to "garner good press", according to new reportAirbnb rentals cut deep into San Francisco housing stock, report... View full entry
Home-rental company Airbnb has “acqui-hired” the majority of the team behind ChangeCoin, a startup that runs a bitcoin-based micropayments service, according to four people with knowledge of the deal.
The alternative lodging site has been looking at a few bitcoin and blockchain startups, according to two sources, to study what the technology could do for its services.
— Quartz
Have you heard of bitcoin but still can't get your head around the technology behind them?Last fall, I sat down with FOAM, a "decentralized architecture office" that believes the blockchain may revolutionize architecture (and so much more). The interview frames a handy introduction to the... View full entry
Nationwide, Airbnb lists about 173,000 units, equal to about 3.5% of the more than 5 million rooms rented out by traditional hotels — not enough to pose a serious threat to the hospitality industry, according to a study by CBRE's hotel research arm. [...]
The study goes on to say that Airbnb properties have started to pressure hotels to keep rates low in a handful of cities where home-sharing units are plentiful, including Los Angeles, San Francisco and [New York].
— latimes.com
More from the short-term rental market:Airbnb intentionally misconstrued data to "garner good press", according to new reportAirbnb draws ire with passive-aggressive adsIkea and Airbnb: a match made in globalized heaven?Airbnb to collect taxes in ParisAirbnb rentals cut deep into San Francisco... View full entry
In December, Airbnb released a trove of data that showed about 95 percent of its hosts in New York City were playing by the rules. But an independent report released Wednesday cast a shadow on that rosy picture, claiming that the company “misled the media and the public” by removing more than 1,000 listings from its site in November before making available the data
[...]
The report portrays the December release as a cynical attempt to garner good press...
— New York Times
“Airbnb continues to show a blatant disregard for New York laws designed to protect the rights of tenants and prevent the proliferation of illegal hotels," said Matt Mittenthal, a spokesman for New York’s attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman.For more on the "disruptive" influence of Airbnb... View full entry
When Airbnb put up ads suggesting various ways San Francisco could use the company’s tax payments, it was undoubtedly aiming to drum up good will.
“Dear Parking Enforcement,” one of the ads read, “Please use the $12 million in hotel taxes to feed all expired parking meters. Love, Airbnb.”
[...]
But instead of good will, the flippant tone of the ads, which went up on billboards and bus stops around the city on Wednesday, unleashed a torrent of sarcasm and anger on social media.
— NY Times
Last week, a deluge of anger and annoyance rained down on Airbnb after their new ad campaign popped up around San Francisco. Billboards plastered with phrases suggesting ways various government agencies could better use the roughly $1 million in taxes per month generated by the company were... View full entry
Ikea is to Airbnb what oxpeckers are to rhinos and Donald Trump is to Fox News: a symbiotic partner. [...]
It may seem perverse to stump for standardization when Airbnb is known for its diversity, with lodgings in not just chateaus and cute bungalows, but also tree houses and shoe houses. [...]
But dig a little deeper and you’ll find the cool lingua franca of Ikea permeating Airbnb’s 1.5 million listings like fat marbling rib-eye steak.
— travelandleisure.com
Airbnb and Ikea have previously collaborated on a contest in Tempe, Australia, for shoppers (guests?) to spend the night in showrooms for $10. But the partnership that this piece's author is proposing seems to directly align Airbnb's practices with exactly what its opponents criticize most –... View full entry
After imposing taxes on units in Amsterdam, Portland, Oregon, San Francisco and elsewhere, “home-sharing” facilitator Airbnb will now begin collecting taxes in Paris, the company’s biggest market.
Collection officially begins October 1st and some see the move as Airbnb’s attempt at playing nice with city regulators. Venture Beat connects the change to Uber’s troubles in Paris, where the ride service company fought new regulation policies.
— nextcity.org
People caught running unlicensed apartments through websites will be offered the chance to have 80% of their fine canceled if they allow the city council to use the apartment as social accommodation for three years...When the three years are up the landlord [can] either pay off the fine through his or her own funds and reclaim possession of the apartment or continue offering the property as social accommodation until the council receives the equivalent of full payment of the fine. — Business Insider
More on Archinect:Airbnb now open for business in Cuba, despite anemic internet accessAirbnb rentals cut deep into San Francisco housing stock, report saysMonterey Park City Council adopts tougher penalties for landlords of illegal boarding homesAirbnb celebrates London's Deregulation Act with... View full entry
If you happen to find yourself wandering IJburg's Centrumeiland artificial island in Amsterdam this summer, you might encounter a peculiar group of art installations randomly camped out in what feels like the middle of nowhere. Although the installations alone are enough to draw in passers-by... View full entry