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Airbnb is mostly commercial listings that are basically unlicensed hotel rooms / appartments. I don't think people renting out their personal living spaces is a big part of their income. It's just a story they use to get around regulations.

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That's true now, but not when they first took off.

None of that existed when they first started. The pitch was to rent out your house while you're out of town.

But they only got big when the commercial "hotels" came on and saw they could "work around" laws like that.

That's the point--their utility wasn't obvious at first, until a new market showed up.

Yes... later. They couldn't have predicted it when they started. It sounded like a stupid idea when they started.

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