[tptacek]

The classifieds don't provide comprehensive listings of short-term vacation rentals.

But I'm not saying Airbnb "needs" to deal with it. I'm saying they "should" decline listings from people who don't own their property absent some documentation of consent from the landlord of that property.

[netcan]

I'm not going to pretend I understand all the issues here but would you really want to be half pregnant here? I mean their users are violating all sorts of little laws in thousands of jurisdictions (all the cities/towns/counties/provinces/etc.) all over the world. In some cases this is bad form in some cases that's how BNBs work. I have a sort of feeling that it's better to take the "not my job" approach here rather than doing a half-assed job.

[tptacek]

Yeah, the "half pregnant" point here is probably really good; Airbnb is probably in a terrible bind here.

[x1]

Houses can be rented and apartments can be owned. Think of all the different local laws that might apply to someone that owns a condo, rents an apartment, owns a house, owns a townhome or rents any of these. Hell, even a HOA might have something to say about it. Then again you might rent from a person who doesn't care if you sub-rent out.

Having AirBNB try to determine if every single renter/homeowner has the rights would be a nightmare.

[tptacek]

I understand that there's some ambiguity to the term, but for most people in the US, the word for an apartment that is owned by occupants who do not own the rest of the building is "condominium". Also, you should note that most condominiums have even stricter rules for usage of the building; these are legally binding agreements that attach to the mortgage of the condo.

It is very, very easy for Airbnb to attempt to determine whether a lister owns their property. Obviously, they aren't foolproof. But for starters they could just have a checkbox, and a big red warning if you check it.

[invisible]

  very, very easy...attempt to determine

Yes, they can attempt at determining the ownership but a condominium can also be rented out by the individual landlord legally (as in my case twice at two different residents). A lease is a unique binding contract that varies even within an apartment/condo complex.

The hosts do agree to the terms of service, but I suppose if they want to make it less agreeable to hosts they could scare them away with a big red warning when signing up.

[brandnewlow]

The problem, I suspect, is that people who own their homes are much harder for Airbnb to work with than people who are renting. Airbnb grew quickly by removing friction and making it very easy for people to list space and by providing the bare minimum support to people who list places. That was "good enough" for renters because they don't own the homes and don't care as much. Homeowners might expect a level of service that would tie up a lot of resources and hurt scaling.