Bill Comes Due for Overextended Airbnb Hosts

I have to say, I hope these people go bankrupt.

At first, it was just some guy renting out his spare bedroom, or attached unit. Nobody cared about that, and we supported them in their attempt to make an extra buck to pay for their mortgage.

But then, it became people who took out 5 to 10 mortgages, on separate properties, and turned these homes into a little hoteling empire. This reduced available properties, thus increasing housing costs for everyone, including buyers and renters.

And when you multiply this by thousands of people doing the same thing, then we all now have a very serious housing problem.

It’s a travesty, that the mortgage lenders allowed this to happen. This is also a result of a lack of regulation and oversight. Society must rectify this.

Bummer for the hosts, but if you leveraged yourself to take housing units off the market, I can’t sympathize.

It's business that comes with risks. Nobody forced them to over extend.

They will struggle and tighten belts but they will survive and hopefully learn something from it.

I have no sympathy for people who entered a risky business and failed and then complain that it's not fair. I'm sure they weren't accounting and paying taxes (and commercial mortgage rates) like a real apartment rental business would be.