Airbnb’s home-sharing model not only provides travelers with the opportunity to save money on room and board, guests can find more unique accommodations than standard hotels have to offer. Airnnb hosts also benefit from this service as the extra earnings can be put towards things like student loan debt and mortgage payments.
Sounds like a win-win situation, right? Unfortunately, Airbnb and companies like it have come under attack by some on the Left. Here’s the latest from IWF’s Patrice Lee Onwuka:
Last week, two dozen mayors and elected officials including from Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, and New York along with 17 community groups sent a letter to the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission to pressure federal officials into collecting data on Airbnb listings and the revenue they generate.
This is the first step toward reining in an emerging market that’s challenging the hotel industry and transforming the way Americans travel. This veiled attempt at transparency is an effort to tap a new revenue stream and a precursor for new regulations that will –at best– slow down the growth of the industry by discouraging Americans from renting their spaces, and –at worst– shut down the industry.Local lawmakers may be driven by a desire to fill their piggy banks with new tax revenue or they may be beholden to hotels in the travel industry, which don’t want new competition so that they can keep their prices high. Any way you look at it, cronyism is on full display, but the people who suffer when the free-market place is restricted is us.
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