The Obligations of Small Companies

I completely agree that this issue exists, but I also think the consequences that you draw are completely the wrong ones. In New York City, there are 50,000 Airbnb listings and the lawsuit that was brought against Airbnb alleges that a third of the listings are commercial in nature. Once you start to get big though, I think the obligations really change. Barcelona just forced Airbnb to identify the parties that rent their apartments so that you could more easily check whether they're registered in the right way. San Francisco has now a regime where you're allowed to rent out your apartment up to 90 days a year because they recognize the big benefits that Airbnb will bring to the city.