The good old USA: Land of the free - and Airbnb, the leadership of which has decided to step it up and fight for the 'regular people' who use the site, now worth a cool USD10 billion, to lease out their couches, spare rooms, apartments or indeed an entire property portfolio.
Airbnb has chosen to make its stand against the state of New York, which is claiming through the courts that most Airbnb listings flout the law.
This is nothing new for Airbnb, which has had plenty of problems over the years with various governments for two main reasons:
1) should the company or its users pay tax on the rentals? and
2) does their business model comply with local property law?
The answer of course varies from state to state, country to country.
But clearly Airbnb has had enough of these questions because, um, it's not really a traditional accommodation business and therefore different rules apply.
"The government will accuse Airbnb hosts of being bad neighbors and bad citizens," an emotional David Hantman, Airbnb's global head of policy, wrote in an email to Valleywag.
"They'll call us slumlords and tax cheats. They might even say we all faked the moon landing.
Read the full story HERE Also Read at 4Hoteliers.com: (Click on the title to read)
