Why everyone is cracking down on Airbnb

[Mary lou L.]

http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/22/technology/airbnb-...

from the article

"This week, Los Angeles started to take action against rent-controlled apartments that have been illegally converted into short-term rentals The city the Farifax building's owners and civil cases against three other building owners. Five of the displaced tenants filed a lawsuit against the owner and Airbnb in December."

[Robert Williams]

Yes, you definitely have to "follow the money" to understand why so many municipalities are cracking down on AirBnB.  If you do, you will find that it's hotels and the hotel industry that's pushing for these crackdowns because they don't like the competition.  The hotel industry is actively lobbying and contributing to local government campaigns to make this an issue.  Of course, when the issue is raised by a local government it's never cast in those terms (i.e. they don't come out and say they're cracking down on AirBnB in order to appease the hotel industry).  It's always cast as a local revenue issue, or as a protection of local renters issue.  

In DC we eliminated the local revenue issue argument by passing a bill whereby AirBnB rentals are charged hotel/motel taxes.  

It's the same thing that's happening with Uber.  The taxi industry and lobby are actively opposed to Uber because they are a direct competitor.  The taxis in DC are horrible.  More often than not, they refuse to run the AC (or it's "broken"), their cars are dirty, and many drivers are rude (this is of course a generalization based on my own experience).  The DC taxi industry's response to Uber wasn't to improve the quality of their customer service or their cars, instead it was to attack Uber drivers and cars as being unsafe and unregulated. 

There's an obvious need for local governments to figure out an appropriate level of regulations for AirBnB, but let's not vilify AirBnB or property owners for trying to get the best and highest use/return on investment out of their properties.