[criley2]

I get where you're coming from, but the idea that we should all rush to giant globo-monopolies to save us from the complexities of small businesses is just wild and disgusting. This is very much the "Microsoft/Apple, save me from Linux" vibe.

EDIT since every reply is the same: AirBnb operates 0 rooms. To be so willfully obtuse about AirBnb is wild.

Clearly the operators of these rentals are small businesses, the vast majority operating less than 10 properties. They use several major booking platforms for their rooms including AirBnb, Vrbo, TripAdvisor and a dozen other vacation rental platforms. Their rooms are not AirBnb's. Their service is not AirBnb's.

I don't even know how to begin to reply to someone who treats AirBnb, a booking platform that operates 0 hotels and 0 rooms, as the same as say a Marriot, who operates 1,423,044 rooms worldwide.

[praptak]

But Airbnb is a giant globo-monopoly.

So the actual choice isnt between globo-monopolies and small business. It's between monopolies that don't spread bed bugs and one that does.

[usr1106]

And one of these nasty platform economy phenomenons: Take the profit, leave risks and bad labor conditions to others. Whether related to bed bugs or not, those blood suckers don't deserve our sympathy or business.

[hombre_fatal]

Well, hotels spread bed bugs.

You're granting the hypothetical world of the upstream commenter where an anti-bed-bug regulation is put in place that's so bent towards hotels that only hotels could survive, but we'd need to see more details on that before we grant it. What would that even look like and would it be worth it beyond the HN knee-jerk of "lol Airbnb bad"?

[jddj]

Bit of a facetious take, but I think it has some value: Airbnb isn't a particularly small business, compared to your average hotel.

[lotsofpulp]

Almost all US hotels are owned and operated by smaller companies/families. Hilton/marriott/IHG/hyatt/choice/wyndham/etc sell their brand to franchisees.

[Amezarak]

Airbnb has 8.4 billion in revenue and 16 billion in assets. They are not a "small business." Hilton's revenue is 8.7 billion and they have 15 billion in assets. Hilton also doesn't cause rental and home prices to rise.

People with enough money to buy homes to rent out as Airbnbs can buy or build small hotels with a little extra effort.

[lotsofpulp]

> People with enough money to buy homes to rent out as Airbnbs can buy or build small hotels with a little extra effort.

I don’t see how this can be true. A half decent hotel in even cheaper parts of the US is going to cost $100k per key, and in any popular city, multiples more. Plus, if you want to buy a franchise from Hilton/Marriott/Hyatt, they are going to ask one of the owners to already have another hotel as a credit check.

Buying a house or condo, on the other hand, only requires a few hundred thousand, outside of the most expensive areas.

And building a hotel is a completely different ballgame than buying an existing property. Cities long ago stopped approving small motels to be built, and clearing the permits/buying the land/getting a construction loan/ensuring your GC does the job on time is a whole lot of risk.

[Amezarak]

> Cities long ago stopped approving small motels to be built,

I wish they had, but that's not true anywhere I've lived.

[lotsofpulp]

I’m in the US, I have not seen a single new hotel in the last few decades that was not minimum 3 stories and indoor. The numbers do not pencil out for anything less than 60 to 80 rooms, and cities do not want the cheap local motels that end up catering to drug users/prostitutes/etc. A motel 6 would be the lowest quality tier I think.

[Amezarak]

I'm in the US and I've see plenty of them built recently, which have exactly all the problems you mention, which is why I'd rather them not.