[RV86]

The runaway success of AirBnB has to largely be viewed as a reaction to the alarming trend of increased % of income spent on rent.

What used to be a standard of 25% has approached 45%+ in a very short amount of time in cities like NYC, San Fran, LA, and more. Wages have stagnated and tenants are doing everything they possibly can to afford to live in their city of choice. For politicians to go after AirBnB is to miss the underlying problem.

[dkuebric]

It could even be fueling the increased rent in a small way. With residential apartments occupied as hotels, there's fewer on the market. I've hosted on airbnb to defray the cost of my apartment; viewed from another angle, that's helping keep the market's costs up through my increased willingness to pay the prices.

[jessaustin]

This is a good point; it would be a shame (but not exactly a surprise) if society focused its regulatory policy on the symptom rather than the disease. One seems to hear a lot less about the evils of AirBnb from relatively-cheaper cities.