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Comment by psaintla | Hacker News Reader

I think the bigger problem is that it would allow competitors or just people who are assholes to file unfounded complaints. I don't think much good would come of such a system.

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I think there would certainly be things to iron out but the burden is on them to provide a system of regulation that works. Currently they aren't. Regardless I don't think the two problems you mentioned are insurmountable for a $10B company by any means.

I believe it isn't insurmountable but any possible solution would be unreasonable. You're asking for a system to be put in place but you have no ideas regarding implementation. If you think about the problem you'll realize how ridiculous any solutions would be. The biggest problem is verification of complaints, how do you do that?

You're proposing that my solution wouldn't work. Maybe, but your opinion is based on just as little data as mine is, so neither is more valid. I still think my system would work fine, and this is based on helping work on systems similar to this in the past, but that's not really the point.

I want to reiterate that while I provided what I think is a relatively easy and doable approach, the burden is not on people negatively impacted by a company to come up with solutions. The simple fact is that most metropolitan areas do not allow short term rentals in residential neighborhoods as a matter of zoning, not to mention the fact that many leases prohibit subleasing of any kind. AirBnB allows a ton of illegal activity to happen on its network, and then claims it has no easy way to enforce the law. That may or may not be true, but it's like telling a bank that is laundering money that it's not responsible for fixing the money laundering problem because detecting it is expensive, and hey, they're just the platform right?

I'm not saying your solution wouldn't work, I'm saying that any implementation of your solution would be an unreasonable burden. AirBnB is not a real estate agent and does not act as one, there are no laws against them listing properties nor should their be.

I don't see how you can say that and not feel the same way about payment providers. If AirBnB is not on the hook for activity that happens explicitly and exclusively on their platform I don't see why we should hold banks accountable for illegal activity that happens on their platforms.

Banks shouldn't be held accountable for illegal activity that occurs on their platform unless they are complicit in the activity neither should AirBnB. If the government comes to AirBnB or a Bank with evidence of criminal activity they should then have act but neither should be in the business of policing on behalf of the government.

I would agree with AirBnB having to be audited so that the gov't could do the policing but that's about it.

Well the entire US legal system disagrees with you so I guess this is just where we part ways.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-02/hsbc-judge-approves...

For banks... we're discussing short-term real estate rentals.

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