"Owning a UK hotel" or "managing a large chain" is a long way from being someone like Steve Wynn, the Hilton's, or other large controlling entities that might a

"Owning a UK hotel" or "managing a large chain" is a long way from being someone like Steve Wynn, the Hilton's, or other large controlling entities that might actually care if this was actually affecting their business. Furthermore, Paul has been pretty vocal about what does/doesn't work in the hotel industry. I'm pretty sure his hotel ties don't give a rat's backside about his article, TC, and the issues AirBnB are facing. The conspiracy theory angle is pretty dumb, in my opinion. Might there be people trying to take advantage of the situation? Sure. We've seen at least one article here on YC about an AirBnB competitor plugging the need for customer/host verification. I don't think the hotel industry really cares at this point. VRBO and other rental sites as well as CL are the near term losers for AirBnB. Two million arrangements in 2+ years is a drop in the bucket for the hotel industry world wide. Furthermore, the majority of the traveling populace don't use such services.