Anyone ever use the service Airbnb? [View all]

[Earth_First]

Essentially it's a service that matches travelers with rooms for rent by owner. Could be a couch, a guest room or a portion (or entire) home.

I stumbled upon a link via social media to a petiton to NYS Attorney General Schinderman in which a group representing Airbnb in its legal matters in which the AG has issued a subpenoa against Airbnb for three years' worth of their user's data.

From what I gather, the state is attempting to shut down Airbnb utilizing a law which prevents landlords from operating substandard accomodations.

Personally, I find this odd. When these accomodations are offered, they are generally in the homes of individuals who also reside in the accomodations, I hardly believe that most would live in conditions that would be of questionable standard.

I'm not opposed to having some sort of guidelines that would certify Airbnb users to offer their spare room. However it doesn't seem that many municipalities are willing to have this dialogue just yet.

Honestly, I think that if you dig deeper into this situation, there is a lot of monied interests creating the issue.

Ill offer some links and further investigation later this afternoon, I'm on a mobile device currently...

Just interested in what other's thought of the service...