There are many problems with Airbnb, that unsurprisingly several are missed by the regulators and politicians in general.
Two come to mind as chronically missed opportunities:
1. Say you’re a landlord. You lease your investment unit for one year to Mr and Mrs Jones. A few months into the lease they tell you they are scooting overseas for a month and their neighbour will take their mail in their absence. You have no issue with that. Without your knowledge they rent the place out for that month via Airbnb. Your llong standing andlord insurance policy does not cover anything while STHL is taking place. The OC is not happy with three different parties living in the property over the month. Some of which make unbearable noise at night and create parking problems. When you find out about this business venture by your tenants, during their month absence, you contact Airbnb and complain saying the tenants have no right to contract with Airbnb. Airbnb tells you to go fly a kite. Specifically: “thank you for your feedback. Our policy is to stand by our hosts and the Jones’ are our hosts”. I repeat: “they cannot be hosts. The place is not theirs. It’s like them selling a random car in a shopping centre car park. They do not have papers to show it is their automobile”! Airbnb thanked me for my feedback but didn’t budge an inch.
I had to go to NCAT (after waiting a few months to be heard) in order to stop this situation, which was repeated a few times and each time exposed me as uninsured. Alternatively I was happy for NCAT to have my tenants ordered to pay the additional premium for landlord insurance that covers STHL.
At NCAT I won because the Member saw the facts as I did. Who knows how another Member would see the facts?
What is needed as part of any reform to the legislation are massive penalties for Airbnb if caught contracting with anyone other than the owner of the premises or anyone who has the owner’s written consent. Maybe a three strikes and you’re out of the Australian marketplace would be a good start. It’s not like there are no other similar platforms; and
2. It was reported a few years ago that negative reviews of accommodation is not a selling point for the platform, so Airbnb did its best to exclude such reviews from the website. For tourists, this makes good hosts indivisible from lousy ones. I am unaware if this unsavoury behaviour continues to operate.