[r00k]

Last night I was wondering if Airbnb has the kind of traffic that would make it feasible to buy a condo somewhere popular (downtown Boston, for example) with the goal of renting it full-time.

I'd love to hear from people who've rented out rooms/apartments through Airbnb in a popular area. How was the demand?

[jonknee]

Depending on the city it does, but many of those cities are quickly trying to shut it down. Hotels and other officially sanctioned places of lodging aren't too jazzed on the idea of unregulated (and thus untaxed) competitors.

An example, New York City has banned rentals for less than 30 days. Enforcement is another issue though, so I guess we'll have to wait until May when the law goes into effect to see what happens.

http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/dispatches/post/2010...

[gustaf]

People are already doing that on Airbnb, at least in New York. We'll have to see if the new law will have any impact the basis of it is a huge mess.