I think you’re leaving out the key aspect of Airbnb’s move, which is to transform a large amount of housing into hotels without appropriate regulation. That’s what enables it to be so profitable.
Right but that's an orthogonal issue to what the market will pay for a given property. I agree that a lot of the draw of Airbnb is that it's cheaper than hotels but this is the case where the current crop of regulations are harmful since people on Airbnb know exactly what they're getting. The regulations aren't addressing any information/knowledge asymmetry or safety concerns that aren't covered in "this is just some randos house" disclaimer. I'm sure that helps Airbnb's funnel but I doubt the absence of hotel regulations would make the current crop of hotels any cheaper since the regulations are tailor made for what they were doing already. Yayy regulatory capture. Right! Back on topic. But none of this matters because we're not comparing hotels to Airbnb, we're comparing Airbnb to renting or selling which is a different batch of zoning regulations they're skirting.
But that reinforces my point since the reason that city planners zone properties/areas for long-term residential only sans a few excepted hotels is keep the prices down to levels that individuals and families can actually afford because you're only competing with other people in your rough income range and not commercial buyers. So I don't see a contradiction in cities just banning Airbnb like any other commercial activity for that reason but it's all like artificial mannn.
But that reinforces my point since the reason that city planners zone properties/areas for long-term residential only sans a few excepted hotels is keep the prices down to levels that individuals and families can actually afford because you're only competing with other people in your rough income range and not commercial buyers. So I don't see a contradiction in cities just banning Airbnb like any other commercial activity for that reason but it's all like artificial mannn.