CNRS bans airbnb!
A few days ago, like all members of French research labs associated with CNRS, the national research institute, I received an email stating
” Le recours aux service de co-voiturage (ex, BlablaCar) et le recours aux services de location entre particuliers (ex. Air B&B [sic]) ne sont pas autorisés car ils font peser un risque sur le CNRS en termes de responsabilité.”
which means that it will no longer reimburse travel expenses connected to airbnb rentals for fear of litigation. While the decision is not completely surprising, given the bureaucratic tendencies of the CNRS, and the fact that cities and administrations are increasingly targeting airbnb, making it primarily a politically motivated ban, this is a most unwelcome item of news, both for funding reasons, as airbnb or a similar rental service offers massive gains when attending a conference with colleagues, and for comfort reasons, as I find resorting to hotels much less relaxing than in a rental, if only because I cannot cook and eat what I want.
Xi'an's Og 
April 29, 2017 at 9:52 pm
I have not received the banning AirBnB document. I am really annoyed by the bureaucratic approach of CNRS. For fear of a problem, the administrators do not care if the researchers spend their mission budgets in more expensive hotels. See also https://www.sciencesetavenir.fr/videos/comment-airbnb-ou-blablacar-bousculent-le-cnrs_8k0k8z Can you put the CNRS document on line? Thanks
February 4, 2017 at 7:20 am
You’re only seeing this from your perspective, a reasonable academic who would have some regard for his temporary neighbors. The vast majority of people who travel abroad seem to be drunken louts who don’t give a damn about how much they disturb the daily life of the residents. I’ve had people urinate outside our apartment under a tree, beer bottle in hand. People have rented out their apartment in our building (illegally) and these tourists made life miserable for us. Given, as Sartre has observed, that hell is other people (I would correct it to hell is 95% of other people), I think that this ban is very welcome. If people weren’t such assholes, I would be all for it, unfortunately that is not true.
Try renting out your place to a couple of partying youngsters and you will come around ;)
February 4, 2017 at 7:56 am
I see your point Shravan and commiserate to the impact of uncontrolled renting on your daily life, but CNRS is not interested in that aspect. As a massive bureaucracy, it only seeks to cover its back in case something happens to one of its employees and CNRS gets sued by the said employee because the insurance coverage of Airbnb defaults… Which could much more likely happen to an independent hotel or rental agency in an underdeveloped country. (I have not heard of such cases but I know nothing!) If the ban is coming from higher circles, the reasons are more in line with yours, which is to favour long-term rentals over short stays.
February 4, 2017 at 2:12 pm
I guess big bureaucracies do have to cover their asses. There is constant fear of being sued at least here in Germany.
February 4, 2017 at 11:28 pm
There is no limit to the extent to which big organizations cover their back. How many meetings, how many hours, important people spent on this decision. At some point, bureaucracy is a cancer. yet who has actual interest in saying so ?
Many regulating bodies realize their work is pointless and illogical, to the point where the employees are becoming depressed about it. yet who has actual interest in saying so, when it superficially provides for work and more headcount ?
When 57% of GDP being state managed, one just asks for a little more, crank it up to 58, to 59%…