[_delirium]

I'm not sure these are "never before seen corner cases". This kind of stuff is pretty much Landlording 101, and it's standard practice for someone engaged in renting a property to know about eviction laws. This person wasn't even engaging in what you might call the new, casual-sharing-of-personal-possessions style of rental, where someone rents their own personal apartment out occasionally while they're on vacation. She was just doing the old-school landlord thing: she bought an investment property she did not live in, and was renting it full-time for profit. That is a line of business in which you can buy and read books, customized to your state, telling you exactly the basics you should know about!

[URSpider94]

This kind of stuff is pretty much Chauffeuring 101, and it's standard practice for someone engaged in driving for hire (through Lyft or UberX) to know about hack laws.

This kind of stuff is pretty much Retailing 101, and it's standard practice for someone engaged in selling items on the open market (through eBay) to know about business laws.

What's "disruptive" about all of these services is that they enable people who wouldn't ordinarily be willing to go through all the red tape and training to enter a previously specialized business, to do so with a few mouse clicks.

One could argue that all of these services (AirBnB, Lyft, eBay) are targeted at amateurs who want to dabble, but we all know that they make a significant amount of revenue from people who are using their platforms to run full-scale businesses, in many cases without securing business licenses, liability insurance, paying relevant taxes and fees, etc.

I don't know if I'd say that the services themselves are responsible, but they are certainly happy to take profit from high-volume vendors operating outside the law.

[sanderjd]

I think you're completely right, but it's worth noting that removing barriers to entry into existing businesses is a very viable business model. Even "buying and reading books customized to your state" is a barrier to entry that a company like AirBnB could help with (though they don't seem to want to go that direction).

[pstuart]

But Airbnb, as a service, should at least filter/advise for knowingly stupid things like renting out for such an extended period.

[chimeracoder]

If they're going to that effort, then why can't they filter for knowingly illegal things, like short-term rentals in cities in which this practice is illegal?

I don't see them doing either one anytime soon, since it presents a major PR/deniability problem.

[pstuart]

They're pretty much knowingly illegal as a business model, but that doesn't mean they can't protect their own users from simple abuses.