[ashray]

Yeah but the problem the parent mentions really comes to the fore when you're trying to make a Dec 15th - Jan 15th reservation (1 month) and AirBNB hosts are unwilling to do a reasonable monthly rate because the middle dates are peak times. Eventually most of these hosts will only get a reservation for the peak dates and lose out on the month reservation. (peak dates may cost a total of $800 and the reasonable monthly might be $1600 but host wants $800 + $1600 or something like that - ridiculous) Peak dates are about 10 days from Dec 22nd - Jan 1st or something. They'll use a 3x multiplier on those dates to come up with $2400 as their new monthly rate. Yeah.. right.

If the entire month was peak (like July in a popular city in Europe or something..) that would still be understandable - but you could again apply that logic to a 3 month reservation and a host arguing about how the month in the middle are peak dates.

Of course, not all hosts are like that - yet. But if this is the shape of things to come, long term rentals are going to get harder just like the parent mentions.

[msellout]

You're saying that the balance of supply and demand leads to optimal pricing -- maximizing both producer and consumer surplus?