Reporter Zhao Xibin
"Parent-child theme", "Nordic style", "Japanese-style tatami"... On a homestay reservation platform, some of the short-term rental rooms with distinctive features opened in residential communities are very popular, with a large number of reviews and collections.
Recently, Beijing issued the "Notice on Regulating Management of Short-term Rental Housing (Draft for Soliciting Comments)." The draft for soliciting comments is intended to clarify that if the community owners operate their residences for short-term leases, they shall comply with the management regulations of the community or the decisions of the owners' assembly; if there is no management protocol or the decisions of the owners' assembly, they shall obtain written consent from other owners in the building.
Short-term rental housing
The short-term rentals of the B&Bs opened in the residential community not only provide convenience for tourists and bring benefits to the landlord, but also make the surrounding residents unbearable. From early morning, there were noises and the sound of sliding trolley boxes in the corridor. In the early hours of the morning, laughter and singing continued. Residential houses can be transformed into short-term rental houses. However, behind the low barriers to entry, unlicensed operation and lack of supervision also make short-term rental houses chaotic.
Low entry
Residential houses are simply furnished and then turned into short-term rental houses
In a community on Yaojiayuan Road, a short-term rental room has a "single room dream tatami" sign to attract the attention of tenants. The charge is 300 yuan per night, which is very cost-effective compared with surrounding hotels. A tenant wrote in a comment: "The room is equipped with cooking utensils for cooking, and it is convenient to travel."
In many homestay booking platforms, similar short-term rental houses use colorful pictures and an eye-catching slogan to attract customers.
"Smart duplex", "light luxury audio-visual room", "Bohemian style"...B&Bs that appear in the form of short-term rentals, the daily rent is mostly concentrated in the range of hundreds of yuan to two or three thousand yuan, and tenants can move in according to the location Choose the number of people and occupancy needs. Such houses are mostly opened in residential quarters, which are transformed from residential buildings. Through decoration or soft decoration, the rooms have different styles, and the rooms are mostly rented out in a whole set.
Short-term rental housing
Mr. Zhang runs four short-term rental houses in B&Bs, all of which are located in residential communities. One of the rooms of more than 40 square meters was carefully decorated, with colored lights and veils hanging around the bed. He also prepared oil and seasonings for the tenants when cooking. He rented the house through the whole lease, and then arranged the house to make the room look warmer. After putting the house on the homestay reservation platform, tenants often ask him about the housing situation. "As long as it can be met, we can do our best to meet the needs of customers."
Ms. Li once rented more than 20 residential houses in a community near Chongwenmen and transformed them into guest houses for operation. The community is mostly small apartment with a good location, so the housing is more popular. Many landlords have been cooperating with her for many years. Because of the stable housing, Ms. Li also renovated some houses in order to increase the rent. During the peak season, the daily rent for each house can reach five or six hundred yuan. She also calculated an account. If the monthly rent per room for long-term rent is around 6,000 yuan, but if it is rented as a short-term guest house, the income will be higher than that of long-term rent.
After the outbreak of the epidemic, Ms. Li’s short-term rental housing was greatly affected, and most of them have terminated their contract with the landlord by paying liquidated damages. I wanted to start business after the epidemic eased, but the recent notice about short-term rentals also made her afraid to rent the whole house for short-term rentals easily. "Although the barriers to entry in this industry are relatively low, some houses only need a simple layout and do not need to be renovated. But a lot of money is also hard-earned. There are also periods of off-peak and peak seasons when the house is vacant for a long time."
Very headstrong
Noisy from morning till night
"Often in the early morning, you can hear the sound of the corridor pulling the trolley box, and people often speak loudly." There is a short-term guest house on the floor where Ms. Shen is located, and she is deeply disturbed by it. "Is this a residential building or a hotel?"
Not only can you often see strangers coming in and out, but the noise in the middle of the night makes Ms. Shen unable to rest. In the past two years, many short-term guest houses have gradually increased in the community where she lives. In the summer vacation, you can often see tenants with children pulling suitcases in and out of the complex. They are not residents of the complex, but tourists who come to Beijing during the holidays. The tidy complex has also become noisy. "The frequency of use of elevators, green spaces, and public facilities in the community has increased, and the living and living environment have also been greatly affected. Tenants do not have access cards for the building door, and the hotel operators will let them randomly press other people’s room numbers. Either it's the'delivery' or'forgot to bring the card, please help.' I've been harassed like this several times."
In addition to the noise outside the room, there are often annoying noises in short-term rental rooms.
"Audio-visual rooms", "projectors", "high-definition theaters", and "places for partying"... In order to attract tenants, some short-term guesthouses have installed projection screens and speakers in the rooms so that you can watch blockbuster movies indoors. Some homestays have also installed a song ordering system on this basis, so that tenants can sing a song in the room. “Such additional facilities can make the homestay stand out from the fierce competition and grab more customers.” A homestay operator said that after the rooms are decorated in different styles, soft decoration and additional services are also very important.
Citizen Mr. Zhou’s neighbor is a short-term rental house converted from a three-bedroom house. In addition to foreign tourists patronizing here, more of them are young people who come here for gatherings. "Eating and drinking are happy, noisy and noisy is not a big deal, the most terrifying thing is to sing, a toss and you will have no head." Mr. Zhou found out from many experiences that as long as the tenant ordered the "Sailor" One song, you can tell their age. "They usually toss about but one in the middle of the night."
People often check in in the middle of the night, and come back to the house to toss, the sound insulation effect is not ideal, and the lives of the surrounding neighbors are greatly affected. Garbage was also randomly discarded in the open space in front of the corridor and elevator. In the community where the operator Ms. Li is located, there are often owners in the group of owners who express opinions on the hotel, but such objections are also overwhelmed by the defenses of Ms. Li and other hotel operators. "Because in this community, there are more than a dozen homestay operators, large and small, and they control a large part of the houses, and most of the rest are tenants, and the voices against them cannot get more support."
Lack of supervision
Changing the use of houses can only persuade
"No need to meet, I will send you the password at that time, and you can open the door according to the password and enter." A homestay operator said that after real-name registration through the platform, he can check in directly on the same day.
The reporter's investigation found that although many homestays register at the time of booking, the room has also agreed on the number of occupants. However, it is very difficult to check whether it is the person at the time of check-in and how many people are staying in. Many landlords choose to issue the password to the tenant on the day of check-in, or put the entrance card and key in a certain location, and let the tenant go to the designated location on the same day to pick it up.
For short-term tenants who are constantly entering and leaving the community, the normal life of some residents is disrupted, and the community owners often reflect their opposition to the property company. "We can only come to persuade, and there is no good way to use them. If the situation is serious, call the landlord and ask the landlord to talk to the tenant, but some landlords do not cooperate." Mr. Luo's company is multiple The community provides property services, and he often encounters similar reports, and the handling also makes him often difficult. "If we can't mediate, some owners will call the police to resolve it."
"We who do homestays continue to toss about the house, the purpose is to short-term rent to people who come to travel, people who come to see the doctor, we don't need a license, and we haven't encountered a tenant who asked us to provide a license." The house has not gone through relevant procedures such as business licenses. "This is a personal house, and those procedures are not necessary. Sometimes the community will ask us to provide the owner’s authorization for filing, and we will also call the owner to talk about the situation. Basically. The owner will agree to the authorization."
The reporter's investigation found that in many short-term rental booking platforms that are mainly homestays, if you want to put a house on the platform for operation, in addition to filling in personal information, you also need to fill in information such as the address of the house, the degree of decoration, and provide ID cards, Real estate certificates or lease contracts do not require business licenses and other licenses.
Lu Mingsheng, a lawyer at Beijing Dacheng Law Firm, said that operating short-term rental houses such as homestays in residential communities constitutes profit-making activities. Short-term rental housing operations not only have not obtained the relevant licenses, but also lack the corresponding supervision, which will bring relatively large hidden dangers to fire protection, public security and other aspects, and make the residents who are constantly disturbed suffer miserable. The "Notice on Regulating the Management of Short-term Rental Housing (Draft for Comment)" fills in the lack of clarity on the characterization of short-term rental housing and the lack of supervision, so that this fast-developing industry will be restrained and made it more virtuous The development of land also makes the operation and supervision of short-term rental housing no longer in a gray area, reducing the occurrence of conflicts between short-term rental housing and surrounding residents.