I have rented out my place (which I own) numerous times. I pay my income taxes through the 1099 Airbnb issues. Since I've started renting, I've made numerous friends I keep in touch with, have had invitations to visit Turkey, Singapore... it has helped me pay my bills... and I've never had a disturbance, nor have my neighbors ever had a problem. I realize not all cases are like this, but Airbnb has truly made my life easier, made me a proud host and broadened my horizons. As a guest I have gotten under the skin of neighborhoods in a matter of days (one time I ate at 3 fancy restaurants in a weekend all of which had month long reservation lists because my host is embedded in the local community)
The beauty of Airbnb and other community marketplaces is that I'm incentivized to make sure things go well. If my neighbors complain, it will become hard to host. If my guests complain, it will become hard to host. If I complain at a hotel? No one cares.
I would happily pay a flat yearly tax to register as a short term rental host. I won't however spend 10s of hours working through ridiculous paperwork, spending thousands of $s to get onside of this antiquated system. We should be thankful of companies like Airbnb, like SideCar, Uber, TaskRabbit, Exec, pushing our outdated world forward.
The beauty of Airbnb and other community marketplaces is that I'm incentivized to make sure things go well. If my neighbors complain, it will become hard to host. If my guests complain, it will become hard to host. If I complain at a hotel? No one cares.
I would happily pay a flat yearly tax to register as a short term rental host. I won't however spend 10s of hours working through ridiculous paperwork, spending thousands of $s to get onside of this antiquated system. We should be thankful of companies like Airbnb, like SideCar, Uber, TaskRabbit, Exec, pushing our outdated world forward.
Just my $.02