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The sharing economy is great for anyone who thinks bankruptcy is a cool idea. If you share your home with someone, they can sue you for arbitrarily reasons. If

The sharing economy is great for anyone who thinks bankruptcy is a cool idea. If you share your home with someone, they can sue you for arbitrarily reasons. If you share your car with someone, and they get into an accident, the victims (or "victims") can sue you for arbitrary reasons. (Yes the services provide liability insurance, but the caps are well below awards that are commonly made in accident cases. Just trawl some websites of ambulance chaser lawyers to see what I mean) EDIT: NO this cannot be solved with "boilerplate waivers". YES it's a shame. Try to find a lawyer who is willing to share his car over the Internet. You can't. Because they know. EDIT: As for jurisdictions, I'm referring to the US. California is probably close to worst case.

lukifer 13y ago
Couldn't this be solved with simple boilerplate waivers? It really is a shame that litigiousness has become so bad. My folks had to stop letting neighbor kids use their zip-line when they learned they could be sued and lose everything if anyone hurt themselves.
- goggles99 13y ago
  A waiver will not solve the issue of negligence. What is considered negligent? Well it is not definable in any given terms. So someone sues you for having black mold in your attic and now they are permanently disabled for staying in your house for two weeks. You didn't know it was there, but you should have. someone trips and falls in your kitchen the tile is 1/96 of an inch uneven, you are negligent. Someone's kid gets scalded in your bathtub, it's your fault because that hot water heater that you just had replaced was too hot. You can never be safe, any waiver saying "I will not sue this land owner for any reason no matter what" is worthless because even if they did sigh it, it would be deemed illegal. Good luck.
cthor 13y ago
Is this true for most jurisdictions? That doesn't seem like the kind of law that lends itself to being universal.
yaix 13y ago
The sharing economy is great. However, what seems to be broken is the legal system in the place you live.
cmsmith 13y ago
This is an excellent point that people miss when talking about the 'sharing economy' The difference in price between equivalent quality airBnBs and traditional hotels can be attributed to a few things: 1) Difference in demand due to people being more comfortable in anonymous hotels 2) Inherent efficiency in 'sharing', because the owner was going to own the property whether or not they rent it out. 3) Corruption. Unfair zoning and political influence of hotel industry. 4) The risk that you mention is priced into hotel rooms, but not into airBnBs. 5) External costs. The negative impact on the neighborhood (traffic, noise, damage) caused by high-turnover renters. Hotels pay some of this through extra taxes and regulation, while sharers pay none of it. Now to the extent the price difference is made up of 1,2, and 3, the sharing economy is great. We are moving towards a more efficient marketplace, with lower prices and better quality for everyone. The trouble is, the hotel industry is already pretty competitive. So I would guess that a good amount of the price difference actually resides in 4 and 5, in which case the sharing economy is saving travelers money and taking it out of the pocket of the hosts and local communities.
- muzz 13y ago
  Excellent points, although what do you mean by #3? My impression was that the hotel industry is subjected to regulation, as opposed to it wielding power. In addition to regulation, many states and localities impose significant taxes on hotel stays. For example, the theoretically low-tax Texas has a 6% state hotel tax [1], but localities also levy taxes on top of that, bringing the total to often 15%. [1] http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/hotel/ http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/hotel/
  - shpiel 13y ago
    I assume it meant zoning that limits the number of hotels that can be built in a particular municipality. I also assume he meant to suggest that established players attempt to limit the growth of competition by being in favor of regulation (permits, zoning restrictions, business licenses) that makes it difficult to enter their market.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
oelmekki 13y ago
As you mention in edit, airbnb is not a US only service. I have no stats to prove that, but I've always been under the impression that suing is some kind of national sport in the US : it may not be that bad for the rest of the world. An other thing I think : US certainly won't stay behind if it becomes a sufficient economical force in the rest of the world. They will adapt their laws.

lukifer 13y ago

Couldn't this be solved with simple boilerplate waivers? It really is a shame that litigiousness has become so bad. My folks had to stop letting neighbor kids use their zip-line when they learned they could be sued and lose everything if anyone hurt themselves.

goggles99 13y ago
A waiver will not solve the issue of negligence. What is considered negligent? Well it is not definable in any given terms. So someone sues you for having black mold in your attic and now they are permanently disabled for staying in your house for two weeks. You didn't know it was there, but you should have. someone trips and falls in your kitchen the tile is 1/96 of an inch uneven, you are negligent. Someone's kid gets scalded in your bathtub, it's your fault because that hot water heater that you just had replaced was too hot. You can never be safe, any waiver saying "I will not sue this land owner for any reason no matter what" is worthless because even if they did sigh it, it would be deemed illegal. Good luck.

cthor 13y ago

Is this true for most jurisdictions? That doesn't seem like the kind of law that lends itself to being universal.

yaix 13y ago

The sharing economy is great. However, what seems to be broken is the legal system in the place you live.

cmsmith 13y ago

This is an excellent point that people miss when talking about the 'sharing economy' The difference in price between equivalent quality airBnBs and traditional hotels can be attributed to a few things: 1) Difference in demand due to people being more comfortable in anonymous hotels 2) Inherent efficiency in 'sharing', because the owner was going to own the property whether or not they rent it out. 3) Corruption. Unfair zoning and political influence of hotel industry. 4) The risk that you mention is priced into hotel rooms, but not into airBnBs. 5) External costs. The negative impact on the neighborhood (traffic, noise, damage) caused by high-turnover renters. Hotels pay some of this through extra taxes and regulation, while sharers pay none of it. Now to the extent the price difference is made up of 1,2, and 3, the sharing economy is great. We are moving towards a more efficient marketplace, with lower prices and better quality for everyone. The trouble is, the hotel industry is already pretty competitive. So I would guess that a good amount of the price difference actually resides in 4 and 5, in which case the sharing economy is saving travelers money and taking it out of the pocket of the hosts and local communities.

muzz 13y ago
Excellent points, although what do you mean by #3? My impression was that the hotel industry is subjected to regulation, as opposed to it wielding power. In addition to regulation, many states and localities impose significant taxes on hotel stays. For example, the theoretically low-tax Texas has a 6% state hotel tax [1], but localities also levy taxes on top of that, bringing the total to often 15%. [1] http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/hotel/ http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/hotel/
- shpiel 13y ago
  I assume it meant zoning that limits the number of hotels that can be built in a particular municipality. I also assume he meant to suggest that established players attempt to limit the growth of competition by being in favor of regulation (permits, zoning restrictions, business licenses) that makes it difficult to enter their market.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

oelmekki 13y ago

As you mention in edit, airbnb is not a US only service. I have no stats to prove that, but I've always been under the impression that suing is some kind of national sport in the US : it may not be that bad for the rest of the world. An other thing I think : US certainly won't stay behind if it becomes a sufficient economical force in the rest of the world. They will adapt their laws.