"Prostitution wasn't really at the top of our minds when we passed the 2010 law helping NYC enforce against illegal short-term rentals, but in hindsight it seems kind of obvious."
You have to admit, I think the enterprising minds here at HN also failed to foresee this.
I wonder if AirBnB internally had some risk assessment of this.
> Everyone knew it happened. Actually, the new management probably didn't, but wouldn't have done anything about it if they'd found out, apart from carefully forgetting that they'd known.
I think "potential illegal uses" is a pretty common argument against short-term rentals, and prostitution isn't exactly a non-obvious one. It's just generally a bit easier on the neighbors than, for example, crazy parties or drug houses, which are both commonly-touted (and valid) arguments against short-term rentals.
A prostitution ring is pretty low on the list of things that could go wrong.
Most likely it's that most of HN doesn't care what consenting adults do on their own time.
Weeeeeell…