[latj]

I've often wondered what would happen if AirBnb only allowed hosts to rent out their own primary residence. Or, perhaps primary residence plus one other unit.

This would alleviate the problem of hotels claiming hosts are a hotel. And it would make AirBnb better as the worst hosts are the ones that are managing multiple units.

Having large multi-unit hosts expands the inventory. But the whole point of using AirBnb is that you dont want to stay at a hotel.

There is a critical point where, if AirBnb allows total number of multi-unit hosts to pass, I suspect the whole thing will crumble. No one wants to wade through that mess to find the thing that AirBnb became so popular for-- normal individuals connecting to strike a deal.

[odbol_]

Even better, only let people own one residence to begin with. If they're not living in it, it's not theirs. That might solve the problem that there are more empty homes in the U.S. than actual homeless people...

[joshfraser]

This is already the case in several cities like NYC and SF:

https://www.airbnbaction.com/one-host-one-home-san-francisco... https://www.airbnbaction.com/one-host-one-home-new-york-city...