Berlin had an extremely lively tourism sector before Air BnB existed and will doubtless continue to have one afterwards. Tourism is a double-edged sword anyway - it provides jobs, although often not particularly good ones, but it can easily grow to a point where it damages the cultural life or general quality of life for a host city. In this case I think the judgement has been made that AirBnB tourism does more harm to Berlin than good.
This is among the dumbest things I've ever read on HN.
How? If Berlin wants to make it difficult to find affordable short-term housing then obviously some people (like me and OP) would rather go somewhere else.
By the way, Berlin's hotel market is quite affordable. A room in a decent Best Western is in the order of 50 €, which is way lower than in other European capitals.
So before Airbnb existed, people should not have traveled?
I visited Berlin around 7 years ago. Stayed in a rental apartment for a reasonable price. and AirBnB didn't exist then.