CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh

"Holiday Flats Edinburgh's Ruin"

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  1. chdot
    Admin

    It was great for a while. Then people started finding their ‘host’ was a lettings agency, and communities weren’t keen on guests

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/08/airbnb-wild-disruptive-cheap-lettings-agency

    Posted 1 year ago #
  2. chdot
    Admin

    So given we *finally* have the tools to address STLs through the planning system, and today’s application was the first case to come to committee since NPF4 was approved, why did the majority of committee not use the tools we have to refuse?

    You’d need to ask them. 6/n

    https://mobile.twitter.com/cllrchasbooth/status/1636078686091767808

    Posted 1 year ago #
  3. chdot
    Admin

  4. chdot
    Admin

    Valencia will introduce one by the beginning of next year. Bologna charges €4 a night, about average for an Italian city, and French resorts have been able to impose a taxe de séjour since 1910. But local authorities in Britain have consistently wavered when it comes to imposing a tourist tax similar to those commonplace in the rest of Europe. In recent years Oxford, Bath and Hull reportedly contemplated a levy but decided against it.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/10/the-guardian-view-on-manchesters-tourist-tax-blazing-a-trail

    Posted 1 year ago #
  5. Morningsider
    Member

    I've never understood why politicians are so squeamish about imposing a minor tax on people who:

    1. cannot vote for them.
    2. probably won't even notice.

    No-one who visits a city as expensive as Edinburgh will be put off by paying an extra couple of quid a day.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  6. Stickman
    Member

    https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/business/edinburgh-property-letting-portal-snapped-up-by-global-holiday-rental-giant-airbnb-4098100

    Readers with a long memory may recall that Mr McCusker was the brains behind the 20mph protest after his “endless research” on the adverse effects of 20mph limits.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  7. chdot
    Admin

    So it is!

    https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/protest-march-against-20mph-limits-plan-1513724

    (The 3 taxis and a dog one.)

    “Of course it might not be apathy, it might genuine,y be that not that many people actually do support the cause, there must be 'some' reason they got 39 people and PoP got 4,000....”

    http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=14385&page=3#post-181494

    Maybe he can now afford to move somewhere with no speed limits…

    Posted 1 year ago #
  8. Morningsider
    Member

    Ohhh - high flying business deals!

    Which seems odd, as "Letting Cloud" is a micro-business with no assets, which shares its registered office at 5 South Charlotte Street with 2,409 other companies. Must be a squeeze in there, although I suppose you could hold meetings in KFC.

    Posted 1 year ago #
  9. chdot
    Admin

  10. Stickman
    Member

    Seems Mr McCusker is a bit of a fantasist:

    https://www.uktech.news/proptech/letting-cloud-fake-airbnb-acquisition-20230420

    Last week Grant MacCusker, CEO of Letting Cloud, claimed the Edinburgh-based company he founded in 2019 had been acquired for an undisclosed sum by US short-term rental platform Airbnb.

    That claim was robustly denied by Airbnb. UKTN has since uncovered a series of false or misleading claims from MacCusker that led to numerous media outlets publishing the fake acquisition, along with evidence that he has been dishonest about previous business dealings.

    Posted 12 months ago #
  11. Morningsider
    Member

    Odd how I managed to find something fishy about this (see above) after a lightning quick check on the Companies House website, but it seems to have fooled various esteemed organs of the Scottish press.

    Posted 12 months ago #
  12. Murun Buchstansangur
    Member

    @chdot/Stickman/Morningsider :) thank you, you have brought joy to my day

    Posted 11 months ago #
  13. acsimpson
    Member

    It seems this "sale" was an even smaller event than his one taxi plus a dog protest.

    What betting is there that his "awards" were self nominated and judged solely on the nomination.

    Posted 11 months ago #
  14. chdot
    Admin

    Re Demo

    Looked at the video, think the 39 is the number of people walking.

    So another 10 or so in the taxis and disco lorry!

    Worth reposting this -

    https://wisob.wordpress.com/2015/02/21/in-which-i-come-over-all-daily-mash/

    Posted 11 months ago #
  15. chdot
    Admin

  16. Murun Buchstansangur
    Member

    More grifting:

    https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/businessman-who-claimed-bogus-airbnb-29979123

    "A business which claimed to have raised a whopping £466,000 via a dodgy crowdfunder says all investors have been paid back.

    Grant MacCusker and his son Jamie Stewart have been threatened with legal action after a fundraiser on the Crowdcube website for their Student Rents firm was alleged to have made false claims."

    Posted 11 months ago #
  17. chdot
    Admin

    Yeah he’s well known to CCE!

    http://edinburgh.stv.tv/articles/309605-opinion-from-grant-maccusker-founder-of-campaign-say-no-to-20mph/

    Hard to know if he should talk to the Police or NHS…

    Posted 11 months ago #
  18. chdot
    Admin

  19. Morningsider
    Member

    I love it. Short-term let owners:

    1. "How dare the Council interfere in the free market! They will kill the sacred festival!"
    2. "The free market is making me charge eight grand a week for my horrible flat! These prices will kill the festival!"

    Posted 11 months ago #
  20. chdot
    Admin

    "These policies will be as damaging as the clearances and I never thought in my time I'd experience SNP clearances," he said.

    "The existing licensing scheme for short-term lets is unfair, unreasonable and disproportionate.

    https://archive.is/SclnP

    Posted 10 months ago #
  21. chdot
    Admin

  22. chdot
    Admin

    I've just read through the Court of Session ruling and want to lay down my *opinion* on some of the detail. Not really the big win for operators that it's being presented as but certainly a nuisance for CEC legal team, others may disagree 1/

    https://twitter.com/euanhyslop/status/1666797111868784640?

    Thread

    Posted 10 months ago #
  23. chdot
    Admin

  24. chdot
    Admin

    Inside Airbnb report the number of listings in the UK has risen from 83,000 in 2016 to 339,000 in 2023.

    A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Many hosts will already be able to meet licensing conditions as a matter of compliance with existing law or best practice. We already implemented a one-off six-month extension to the transitional deadline for hosts that were operating prior to October 2022 and thousands of hosts have already applied based on this.

    https://archive.is/4xbfe

    Posted 8 months ago #
  25. chdot
    Admin

    However, sensible regulation to help ensure customer safety is one thing. Using these regulations to achieve wider policy goals is quite another. Councils have been given broad discretion in terms of how they apply licensing and planning rules on short term lets and whilst most councils, such as Midlothian, have elected to implement a fairly benign regulatory regime, others, such as Edinburgh, have chosen to apply strict planning and licensing rules. So strict, in fact, that the courts ruled that the City of Edinburgh Council had gone beyond its powers in using the licensing system to effectively do the job of planning.

    https://www.midlothianview.com/news/cool-heads-are-needed-to-tackle-the-short-term-lets-crisis

    Posted 7 months ago #
  26. chdot
    Admin

  27. chdot
    Admin

    Anger as Edinburgh tourism plan will close self-caterers

    https://archive.is/IkH1h

    Posted 7 months ago #
  28. chdot
    Admin

    Protests over short-term let licensing in Scotland - in the media, outside Holyrood - are doing nothing to lessen the social stigma of being an Airbnb host. I am one myself and I cringe at their self-serving rhetoric and apparent lack of understanding of the bigger picture.

    https://jackie125.substack.com/p/short-term-landlords-demo-not-my

    Posted 7 months ago #

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