Why is it worse? I live somewhere that has huge inflows of tourists (something like 5-10x the population every year), and it is has utterly ravaged the property market. It isn't just that ~5% of the housing stock has disappeared (population growing 5%+ year and in an old city making it very hard to build new places cheaply) but that remaining stock has been converted to garbage (we now have HMOs...used to be a 2 bedroom? Converted into a 6 bedroom...again, this is a small city of a few hundred thousand...HMOs, didn't exist until five years ago, now everywhere).

And yes, there are issues with the people who rent. I am not going to go into detail but I have lived in bad situations (above a homeless shelter, a policeman got shanked outside a place I used to live), it is genuinely unpleasant to have your place turn into a hotel around you. Part of this is negligent landlords (in any block of flats, AirBnb will lead to a build up of trash and abuse of common areas), part of this is unpleasant renters (I have had people ring my bell at 10pm asking for directions in broken English like I am a concierge) but the most obvious point is...why is this even a thing? These are houses. People live here. If you want to stay somewhere, stay in a hotel...that is why they exist (short-term letting in most places is a loophole to let people stay in houses for short to medium periods, not a few nights like a hotel).

And yes, there are issues with tax. In many places in the world, hotel rooms are taxed. AirBnb is not (this will vary, I believe some places have specific taxes that hotels pay directly, others have varying rates of VAT, etc.).

Unf, the local council has so many property-owners and people making money off this situation that I suspect nothing will be done. But, again, I live somewhere where this is huge, tourism has never been an issue (it is a huge part of the economy), and it is deeply unpopular. A lot of these landlords aren't local, they do nothing about the costs imposed on other residents...it is a cancer, it is like having a shitty landlord but you all have to live there. And btw, the place I live gets the same amount as vistors as always...AirBnb doesn't matter, no value is being created for the local economy, people don't come to stay in an AirBnb.

Rant over. Fk AirBnb.