| You are correct that this is not only specific to AirBnB but the whole shared economy. However, things are not black and white and only time will tell how they will settle. From the article: "The law I'm using is that the city says there are hotels and there are apartments, and the two shall never meet," They have already met! Clearly, the demand is huge due to the new realities: better technological infrastructure, disappearing middle class, high prices of real estate and high rents in urban areas, the desire to socialize. The issues are just starting to surface and the laws will have to evolve and adapt. EDIT, since I can't reply to the comment below: "Demand is huge for what? For unlicensed short-term rentals that don't pay hotel taxes or follow regulations, thus saving money? This is not news. This is not a "new reality". In fact, it's why the regulations exist in the first place." I agree with this but that's not among the new realities I was referring to. Some of the new realities are: - people have gotten poorer and don't mind the extra income; some needed it pretty desperately - there is a trend of growing appreciation of urban areas which worsens the first problem - people have learned to be willing to trust strangers due to the reputation/karma system - the Internet has taught people to enjoy the social aspect: meeting interesting strangers |
Demand is huge for what? For unlicensed short-term rentals that don't pay hotel taxes or follow regulations, thus saving money? This is not news. This is not a "new reality". In fact, it's why the regulations exist in the first place.