Isn't Uber concept similar to AirBnB ? DOes this mean AirBnB users are also at risk of being classified as employees of Airbnb ? Uber, you drive your own car. Airbnb, you rent your own apartment.
4-6 are madly different for airbnb than Uber:
4) Uber alone sets prices, and tipping is discouraged, so there is no mechanism for driver (as "contractor") to set prices. 5) Plaintiff driver only provided her time and car. "Plaintiff's work did not entail any 'managerial' skills that could affect profit or loss." 6) Drivers cannot subcontract (presumably negating Uber's position as a "lead generation" tool for contractors).
AirBnB is facing an entirely different challenge - residential vs commercial zoning, hotel taxes, impact on the normal rent market, etc. I'm seeing laws coming up either seeking to regulate & tax them as hotels, or outright ban them as in santa monica: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/05/13/406587575/... Clearly a residential rental market isn't sustainable when you can easily earn at least double with short term rentals.
In essence, AirBnb is just a broker.
With Uber, you don't rent Wissam's driving services for 20 minutes or hire Samantha to pick you up at SFO. You hire Uber and they dispatch a faceless anonymous cog.
That said I'd be interested to know the break down between host involvement/room etc and "entire place" because Airbnb seem to have sold a lot on the host element and there's arguably a major commitment to the guest by a live in host. Also things like superhosts [0] which clearly aren't employees but come a bit closer to blurring the lines.
I think the ebay seller analogy mentioned might be best though - Airbnb hosts set the price freely, approve/reject at will, can make individualised offers, earn trust and Airbnb - like ebay - call out without employing (and supposedly without endorsing) highly trusted hosts.
For Uber to fall into AirBnB status, you'd be able to rate drivers, and drivers could request to pick you up, and you'd choose a driver amongst those available. That's not what happens. Uber would have less control.
There is much more involved here, but the decision is fairly easy reading.