[unexpected]

Speaking as someone who works in a Middle Eastern country, most of these countries would totally lose their minds if AirBnB made serious penetration into the Middle East. They absolutely do not want/tolerate these types of services (Uber also comes to mind).

[konradb]

How come these services are unwanted/not tolerated? This sounds interesting.

[inanutshellus]

Totally fascinating! Why on earth would anyone care what someone else does with their home/car?

[extra88]

I care what my closest neighbors do with their apartment as I share a floor, ceiling, and common spaces with them. If I owned a car, I might care what neighbors on my street do as it could reduce availability of on-street parking (there's little off-street parking here).

But I think the main point was not about the citizenry but the governments in the Middle East. The governments there would care for the same reasons governments in other countries do, companies like Airbnb and Uber are violating and/or inciting violation of zoning laws, regulations, avoiding relevant taxes & fees, etc. Relative to countries like the U.S. they might "lose their shit" because it's more novel to have such disruption. Such outfits might also not fit well with their forms of corruption, reducing bribe opportunities (e.g. why pay a bribe to get a zoning change for a hotel when you can just call the rooms "apartments" and list them on Airbnb?).

[welanes]

Oh you!