New York City Council wants to join the fight against illegal Airbnbs, prompted by data from the hotel lobby. Earlier "a trio of well-connected San Franciscans" backed a ballot that might reward neighbors for reporting law-breaking hosts. You know how tech millionaires don't realize they're not the underdogs anymore. . .
AirBnB had a chance to do it right from the beginning but they went the illegal cash-grab route and now people are rallying together. The legislation that they're pushing in SF would force AirBnB hosts to no longer be anonymous, which would be A) helpful for eviction lawyers and landlords trying to find out who's breaking their lease and B) helpful for people in apartment buildings who can figure out if their neighbors are renting out and acting accordingly.
I know a lot of people who use AirBnB, they really like the service, but the problem is that it doesn't operate in a vacuum. If the guy on my floor is renting out his apartment on AirBnB, that puts everybody else on my floor at risk. You can't just go around your community and your neighbors like that, and people aren't gonna have it.
I think there was a way to do it right originally, but I don't know if that's the case anymore. The backlash is already in swing.
Name one financially successful tech startup that 'did it right from the beginning'.
Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, the list goes on. Companies may make mistakes in the beginning but none of those companies built their base on illegally circumventing the law and then trying to go legit as they approached IPO.
Actually Microsoft is a notorious lawbreaker.
Google has also been slapped for a number of legal violations, Facebook as well, etc. The point I'm making is that their business model was not based on circumventing law in order to make money to rush to an IPO. The products Microsoft, Facebook, Google etc offered before their IPO were all legal.
