Eide Bailly seems to agree with rents now being subject to SE tax: https://www.eidebailly.com/insights/articles/2017/11/tax-reform-bill-released

In other words could I sell this property after 2 years and avoid cap gains tax without doing a 1031 exchange? 

After my divorce, my standard of living plummeted, but I got something much more valuable in exchange: personal responsibility for my future.

While AirBNB is certainly imperfect about how they handle resolutions, I think there are some valuable insights here about the necessity of documentation.Putting myself in AirBNB's shoes, photos and invoices are absolutely critical to resolving disputes and damage/expense claims - otherwise, they would be at the mercy of people who wanted to abuse the system and make frivolous or false claims.  

Any insight would be appreciated.  

Look into the hold requirement of the 1031 exchange.

File to collect rent owed, small claims court, and offer to drop claim in exchange for not returning deposit.If he refuses return his deposit and take him to court.

But in exchange, you pay a very high fee.

I was looking for some insight into multi-family/ apartment building investing, in and around Holyoke, MA.

., we currently have a well established VR in South Lake Tahoe and would be happy to share some insights on my experience if you wanted.