Yes, but AirBnB has a database. All of the violators are just an SQL query away from being discovered.
I wonder if the AG will threaten AirBnB with abetting crime of conspiracy, or some other BS in order to coerce complince....
I wonder if the AG will threaten AirBnB with abetting crime of conspiracy, or some other BS in order to coerce complince....
So, yeah, court order, the charge will be with tax evasion if they really want to get rough.
Nothing noble about that.
Regulations also aren't free. As we've added to housing regulation, compliance costs have risen, and like any other industry high regulatory compliance costs discourage competition from small businesses. Regulations also ensnare unintended targets, especially when they've been iteratively built upon over decades or centuries. Like code, it is difficult to predict the full behavior of a piece of legislation over a vast and complex economy.
This puts us in a tricky balancing act. We need regulation because we've observed the many, many ways an unregulated market tends to fuck over its own customers. We also need to limit regulation in order to preserve competition and avoid people getting screwed by the law even when they aren't the intended targets of said laws.
There are, of course, malicious actors within the system on both sides. Those who seek to add regulations that have little to no public benefit, to further their own interests, and those who seek to remove necessary regulation to further theirs. The incumbent hotel industry tend to represent the former, and AirBnb represents the latter. Neither are working in the interests of the public, though they would both claim to be.
You've bought AirBnb's bullshit propaganda instead of Starwood Hotels' bullshit propaganda. Whoopee.
Both sides, if permitted the full extent of their desired regulations (or lack thereof) would be disastrous for the public and consumers. We, as the public, need to reign them both in, letting either side "win" would be silly and shitty.