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So I agree that cities want to control who can rent what, and where, and that AirBNB is trying to disrupt this. As you point out, there are negative consequences to this. These are serious, and I don't want to dispute any of them. But I do want to point out a positive consequence. Recently I needed to stay for two weeks in Princeton, New Jersey for a mathematics conference. I learned to my horror that the only hotel within walking distance of the university is uber-fancy, and costs like $200 a night. If it wasn't for services like AirBNB (I used Craigslist, but would use AirBNB now), I would have had to pay $2800 for accomodation, or rent a car which I would have otherwise had no use for. (Or perhaps there are other options of which I am ignorant.) Pardon my cynicism, but this is what I believe the people living in Princeton want. They enjoy the small town ambiance, even if it is vaguely faked, and presumably through their city council they push strong zoning regulations which make it impossible to build hotels, and therefore impractical to visit on business. (N.B. None of this is even remotely unique to Princeton, but that is the one experience I have personally had which sticks out.) There is a flip side to this (if I bought a $500K house perhaps I would want strict zoning too), but I still hate it. With AirBNB, rentals cost what the market will bear. AirBNB is bringing good old-fashioned free market capitalism where, IMHO, it belongs. I hope they are a wild success. |