The lack of interest on the side of AirBnB is not very surprising: They know exactly that renting out apartments without a proper license is illegal in most par

The lack of interest on the side of AirBnB is not very surprising: They know exactly that renting out apartments without a proper license is illegal in most parts of the world, they just don't care since they can externalize the risk to the owners of the apartments. Personally, I can understand the frustration of the people that are on the loosing end of this business model: Neighbors who find that their building has become a busy hotel complex, landlords who see the value of their property decline by overuse and noise, hotels that face an army of competitors which don't pay taxes and don't comply with existing regulations, and the whole community that faces increasing rents. Uber provides a similar example by creating a "parallel market" for taxis and putting established companies (which comply with existing regulations) under extreme pressure. In general I'm a big fan of the "free market" model, but gaining an unfair advantage by just ignoring existing laws and hoping to get away with it is not a legitimate business practice, I think.