Why should we pay extra taxes?

AirBnb hosts should not be subject fees, regulation and restrictions that others are free from

I think it is important to point out that many, many people in Berkeley are providing short-term housing to students and foreign students, and have done so for many decades, in their spare rooms, with little to no negative impact. Why should we - who book guests online through AirBnB - be subject to additional fees, taxes and restrictions that others are not subject to? Why should booking online through AirBnB as opposed to through word of mouth or craigslist subject us to all these additional hurdles?


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the proposed regulations would not just apply to Airbnb rentals --- they would apply to all short term rentals. The law is stated as being for short term rentals and not for listings with a particular company.

Of course, Airbnb is very high profile-- if airbnb had never come into being , and everyone was doing a short-term renting through craigslist we would never be seeing proposals for this
kind of regulations coming into existence. It's mainly because air B&B put short-term renting into such high profile that we are having these issues come up.

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How in the world are they going to find out about the little old lady down the street??? AirBnB

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When governments start picking on little old ladies down the street renting out space to supplement social security income, I am starting to fume!

There is a big difference between complaint based enforcement which actually at least theoretically is oriented around actual problems, and the new recommendations by council member arreguin which would allow frivolous lawsuits against little old ladies down the street who rent out space, by any "interested party".

Which is why we should speak up, while we still have a chance to do so.