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0 pointsPaulDavisThe1st5y ago0 comments

Let's suppose that my municipality has adjusted their regulations to be more appropriate.

I live in a 6 bedroom house, and only regularly use a couple of them. I decide to make one available for random people to stay, short term.

How do I find them? How do they find me? How does anyone find a regular hotel these days? That's why you need a website to coordinate.

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jariel5y ago· 2 in thread

"How does anyone find a regular hotel these days? That's why you need a website to coordinate"

? So your point is only AirBnB 'can make a website' ?

If regulations were lax before AirBnB existed there'd be 1000 different sites you could list upon and hoteliers of all kinds would charge less. Or at least many would.

Because AirBnb was the progenitor of the lease-your-room modality they captured the market and have a little bit of a natural monopoly in it, as there's some coordination with marketplace, identity, etc..

Just like there are a myriad ways to 'book a hotel room' - there'd be a myriad was to book your '6 room place'.

PaulDavisThe1stOP5y ago

> Just like there are a myriad ways to 'book a hotel room' - there'd be a myriad was to book your '6 room place'.

I doubt that. I'm not sure I can justify my doubt, but I doubt it.

Also, the "myriad ways to book a hotel room" works only because more or less every hotel is on more or less every such way of doing it.

jariel5y ago

There are a myriad of ways to book hotels right now.

There's no reason, that with more open regulatory scnearios, there wouldn't be a myriad ways to 'book your 6 room flat'.

Or rather, you could have the option to list with a few.

AirBnB 'broke through' into a market that didn't quite exist, partly because it's literally illegal in most places. Very few landlords allow subleasing rooms as well.

Both AirBnB and Uber created a market in a 'regulatory grey area' so they kind of developed a marketplace monopoly.

If that gray area did not exist previously, AirBnB and Uber would not have had the power to break through and dominate.

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