Judges dismisses AIrbnb argument in SF lawsuit

I think one of the ways that Airbnb could protect itself, vis-a-vis various government laws attempting to hold it responsible for host's listings on its site -- is to make one simple but dramatic change in how it does business. If instead of Airbnb being the third party in each host-guest transaction, handling the payments between parties and taking a service fee for doing so, Airbnb would instead simply allow guests to deal directly with hosts and pay them directly, then Airbnb could be completely and utterly free from all responsibility, and even all knowledge, of such transactions. Airbnb could charge hosts and/or guests a flat fee for using the site, much like VRBO does. This would be ideal from the perspective of seeking to avoid intrusive regulations -- Airbnb would then be beholden to virtually no government regulations, at any level, nor liable for any advertising on its site.

For instance -- San Francisco has changed from arguing that Airbnb should be fined if it allows illegal advertising on its site, to saying the fines should come in only when AIrbnb allows such illegal ads to accept a booking through its site. Well if the booking does not go through the Airbnb site, but is a private interaction undertaken directly between host and guest (who can contact each other directly) then Airbnb would never have knowledge of such bookings, if any, and would be completely free of any government requirement to prevent such bookings. Particularly if San Francisco's attempt to hold AIrbnb responsible for such bookings does find legal support, other cities are likely to imitate SF's policy, and this could potentially cause problems for Airbnb around the nation and around the world.

So, shifting to a flat-fee based system, would allow Airbnb to escape such regulations and avoid the hassle of having to monitor millions of listings.

However, at the same time -- such a change in its system would upend the brand. It would be a very different world. It would also mean that Airbnb would also have to trash its shiny new nondiscrimination policy, as it would be unable to oversee hosts' private business dealings with guests.

oh, as for changing airbnb's model.. it's possible they could do that, but only for SF... however, they have a lot of costs involved in this and there's risk as well.
AirBnB stays have costs to the company which vrbo doesn't have. AirBnB spends a lot more on customer support (I know it's hard to believe) and they pay for insurance. something their competitors don't do.

In addition, a single platform fee would be great for high volume hosts but not for casual hosts who just rent their space when they take a vacation or go away for the weekend.