Airbnb’s growing pains: half of its NYC listings are illegal rentals
skift.com
skift.com
Uh, sorry. I like Airbnb, and I like to support startups, but trying to make the claim that you should't have to know the law in every market you operate in just doesn't fly. If you don't know the laws in a market, don't operate in that market until you do. Hire people who know the law. Bring on lawyers from different regions. Have even just one person whose job is to research the laws in the markets you're moving into.
I don't want to have to know the speed limits of every road I drive on, but if I don't pay attention to the signs (or the highway code for unmarked roads), you better believe the officer won't care what I do or do not want to know.
Your analogy to driving is an interesting one... is AirBnB the car rental company or the driver? For instance, if I drive drunk in a rental car, it's my fault, not hertz's.
There is a big difference, of course - Hertz really can't control what I do in the car (and they do spell out some restrictions on what I can do with it), whereas AirBnB has geographic location that might be more useful in determining whether a short term rental is allowed in an area. But even then, there may be different regulations on different types of housing units, leases that might have different restrictions, and so forth. It's hard to see how this wouldn't involve a requirement that the user "comply with all local laws and regulations".
A big factor for me here is that you can book and pay through AirBnB. That does make it different from the classifieds or craigslist style ads.