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While this is all very interesting, and Airbnb will fight this should either party suggest it, it will be the maintenance and overview of the register that will see the real battle erupt.
Almost everywhere that Airbnb hosts have been required to register their properties, the company has fought tooth and nail to avoid revealing the true identities of its hosts and their properties.
Airbnb cite privacy as their concern. Of course, if they were really concerned about privacy, they might give some thought to apartment owners being encouraged to invite complete strangers to share buildings with residents.
But no, the legal arguments they have run in various cities in the USA have been about people being able to make money without anyone else – in some places including the tax man and local authorities – being told about it.
Why? Cynics might point to the probability that we would, for the first time, see the true extent of Airbnb usage in the popular areas of our cities. And, it might reveal how many properties are being let in contravention of strata by-laws and state laws. And it would reveal the people who’ve been making a motza, tax free, at our expense.
Certainly, that saw a halving of listings in Los Angeles and is expected to affect them even more in New York where rental laws are even stricter.
It’s funny how this global monolith is so anxious to defend privacy laws, but less keen on accepting the planning laws and by-laws that are supposed to protect residents from commercial developments.
You’d have to wonder why that is.
In the meantime, if Labor does get in in NSW next year, get ready for an almighty stoush when the net tightens on the “parasites and predators” of holiday rental fiasco.