“They are here, and we are concerned,” said Daria Uhlig, Ocean City Vacation Rental Manager with Long and Foster. “With sites like Airbnb, customers have fewer protections. In our business, we operate at a high level of responsibility both legally and ethically. Without us, guests are more vulnerable to falling prey to scams.”
A Growing Trend
Currently, there are more than 175 listings in Ocean City on the popular website Airbnb, and across the Delmarva Peninsula, there are more than 300 listings. They range in price and length of stay, (the average is a little more than $200 a night), and users, once registered, can contact the owners personally and set everything up for their getaway to the resort without the help of a rental agent.
Still, the number of listings in the resort pales in comparison to major cities around the world, as Airbnb has become a multi-billion dollar phenomenon since its humble beginnings in 2007, offering its 10 million registered guests more than half a million listings spread across the globe in almost 200 countries.
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4 comments:
Today, real estate reps do little that buyers and sellers can't do themselves. There's zillow.com, realtor.com, and DELMLS.com for starters that will help buyers find properties. I personally sold property in DE with no RE rep involved (nor their fee). DE requires the services of a lawyer for settlement so there was nothing for a rep to do that the lawyer can't do for you. Anybody can post a listing on MLS.
The realtors are running scared just like the cab driver from Uber. The internet is shaking up the way thing used to be done. Cut out the middle man.
People are using these services because they are tired of the service being 30% higher than it should be because of excess regulation and taxes.
It's like the travel agents years ago who planned your trips and now everyone books their own online. The middle man is no longer needed.
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