That's not remotely a good characterization of what AirBnB was offering. Like them or not, they were successful for more than a decade because they were objectively providing a better product than traditional hotels.
Complain about the externalities of their service, sure. But let's not pretend that they didn't make something people want.
A cheaper, unregulated, tax-free product. I get that there is a demand for this but there are demands for lots of things that are harmful to society as a whole.
By what measure? You imply that their product being cheaper or unregulated is harmful to society, but you haven't offered any reason as to why. It's also not a tax-free product.
I would be willing to be that most AirBnB hosts are not registered businesses and paying the taxes they owe... for running hotels
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From @amiga_500
I'll add my comment here as I mentioned unearned income, which hacker news really don't like, so they gave me the fake "you're posting too fast" even though I've posted nothing for over 20 minutes.
Ah so that’s what triggers it! Same thing just happened to me!