Airbnb and the law of unintended consequences

Here’s a good summary of the unintended consequences of Airbnb and other STR platforms from The Atlantic.

Key points:

1. The tourism boom means hotels haven’t really been hit yet, but when that ends…

2. Airbnb revenues are doubling annually.

3. Finally, it’s frustrating that the media keeps quoting bad stats on Airbnb about the average host making a few thousand a year or the majority of hosts renting out single rooms. Those stats are probably true but miss the point. That’s all true but misses the point. The majority of Airbnb’s revenue comes from semi-commercial operations (or seems to, they’re aren’t talking and it’s hard to tell). Airbnb always dances around shutting these ones down (which will solve the most community problems) because they know it’ll smash its revenue.