"AirBnB allows to utilize spare capacity available in the already dense city that is doing no work at optimal pricing." That statement is, to me, awful and ter

"AirBnB allows to utilize spare capacity available in the already dense city that is doing no work at optimal pricing." That statement is, to me, awful and terrifying. I live in Berlin, where AirBNB is not popular at all. There's no problem with people renting out spare rooms, or their own flat whilst on holiday, but that's not what happens a lot of the time. Instead, apartments are taken permanently off the rental market, despite the fact it would be perfectly possible to find tenants for them at normal market levels of rent, in order that they can be rented out on AirBNB at a much higher price. They are not "spare capacity doing no work", they are flats deliberately being made unavailable to the local population that actually live in the city for the benefit of tourists and the landlords profit margin. Is that what you want? A city centre made up of tourists staying in "optimally priced" AirBNB flats, whilst the actual residents are forced to live elsewhere? Unsurprisingly, despite AirBNB launching a massive advertising campaign in Berlin, aimed not at potential users, but at local residents, promoting the fairness of so-called "home-sharing"(nonsense, it's a holiday apartment rental business), public opinion is against them and in favour of the permit system now introduced in Berlin, which is free to rent a room, but requires a fee to rent a whole flat.