Letters: Airbnb hosts not the cause of the rental shortage

Airbnb hosts are not sitting on housing for the rental market, says a reader. Photo / File

Jim Adams claims there are an excess of 800 houses in and around the Rotorua area "that are being denied to the homeless and families desperately seeking homes" (Letters, July 15).

Pointing the finger at Airbnbs, he fails to mention that many of these are simply rooms with shared facilities that would not be suitable for permanent accommodation.

We have a very busy little Airbnb studio downstairs in our home, catering for tourist short stays. Please don't push the blame on to us, Mr Adams.

We are a semi-retired couple who have chosen to get off our backsides and make part of our home available to those visiting our fine city, making a little money in the process. What can be so wrong in doing that?

And yes, we do pay tax.

Brian and Ngaire Holden
Rotorua

Lakefront already beautiful

The Rotorua Lakefront was beautiful this sunny Saturday morning. There were toddlers on tiny scooters, with their parents and teenagers and walkers enjoying it.

A very expensive boardwalk over the water will be an interruption, cluttering the view. And, it introduces another safety feature. What will keep people, bikes, and scooters from slipping off into the water?

And who is going to keep it clean? Who is going to keep the birds from roosting on it?

Saturday morning, after Friday's storm, the lovely tiled path along the lake edge was strewn with lake weed, lots of it. No one was there sweeping it up, nor picking up the Steinlager bottles on the grass, or the plastic rubbish (except us).

No one was there chatting up the opportunity to go to the Māori All Blacks game, or letting tourists know what else there was to enjoy in the city.

And the information boards about the development are offensive, claiming this is going to somehow unite our people, the earth and the water.

Consented or not, we must stop this huge waste of money on a lakefront that is lovely as it is, and spend our scarce money to get our precious museum open again.

Dekight Gartlein
Ngongotahā

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