[ahtomski]

They also have the problem of special cases who list in airbnb but are actually professional bnbs/pensions/small hotels etc. who use other commercial listing sites. They're probably on top of their tax vs. amateur users (their spare room is not a sole income stream) who are taking some of that market and heck cities can't lose that cut of tourist/hotel taxes.

[potatolicious]

I think the greatest problem facing AirBnb is that the "special cases" of people renting their properties out professionally is increasing.

Just like how eBay started as a place for people to get rid of old crap, and then evolved into a marketplace dominated by professional sellers.

In the early days AirBnb can rely on some populist good will - they're helping vacationers fill apartments, they're helping the broke college student crash in a spare room, etc. But as the professional listings increase this story becomes less and less relevant, and the more parallels can be drawn between them and traditional lodging, which makes legal and PR liabilities more and more pressing.

I've stayed in 3 AirBnbs in the last year or so, and every one of them are "professionals" - i.e., they rent the space out full time as a substantial portion of their income.

[angerman]

So following along with that eBay comparison, would forcing hosts to be classified in professional (power seller) and private solve this issue sufficiently? Not sure how you'd detect false positives?