A large — and growing — number of companies use arbitration clauses in their overlong, legalese-stuffed customer agreements to prevent customers from bringing lawsuits and joining together in class actions, but can that arbitration agreement be used to avoid legal liability for possible violations of federal civil rights law? According to one federal judge, yes. [More]
Airbnb
Airbnb Sues New York Over New Short-Term Rentals Law, State Won’t Enforce It Yet
By 10.24.16 — Updated: 11.22.16
The latest govermnent to impose rules on short-term rental site Airnbnb is New York: while the law is statewide, it’s mostly intended to clamp down on whole-apartment rentals that critics say are affecting the supply and prices of housing in New York City. The governor signed the law on Friday, and Airbnb immediately sued. Now the state won’t enforce the law until the lawsuit has been resolved. [More]
Dear New Yorkers: Your Short-Term Airbnb Listing Could Lead To $7,500 Fine
By 10.21.16 — Updated: 10.24.16
It’s already illegal for New York residents to list their unoccupied apartments on Airbnb for less than 30 days, but now it’s illegal and it could cost them: Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday signed into law a measure that penalizes hosts up to $7,500 for such listings. [More]
Trouble With Twitter, Reddit, Or The Rest Of The Internet Today? It’s Not Just You.
By 10.21.16 — Updated: 11.1.16
Update: Dyn reports that as of about 9:30 a.m., service has been restored and affected sites and services should start returning to normal. However, as of about 11:50 another round appears to have begun, with even more trouble hitting around 1:30 ET. Read on for more about the scope of the issue. [More]
Airbnb Tries More Self-Regulation In New York, Too
By 10.19.16
If the vacation-booking site Airbnb has to be regulated, it at least wants to impose regulations on itself instead of having local governments do it. While the company is starting to self-regulate in San Francisco and cooperated with the city to make rules in Chicago, it also proposed rules for itself in New York. [More]
Airbnb Removes San Francisco Hosts With Multiple Listings, Ignores Other City Rules
By 10.19.16
The short-term home rental company Airbnb would really prefer to ignore hosts’ local regulations, leaving compliance up to individuals instead of the platform. However, the company has made a key concession to its hometown of San Francisco, pulling listings from hosts with multiple residences off the site, which violate current laws in San Francisco. [More]
San Francisco Proposal Would Limit Residential Airbnb Rentals To 60 Days/Year
By 10.14.16
The relationship between Airbnb and its home city of San Francisco is complicated to say the least. the least. The two have repeatedly duked it out over regulations, taxes, and liability, and now the stage is set for yet another battle between the city and the home-sharing platform, as the San Francisco Board of Supervisors considers reducing the number of days people in the city can rent out their homes each year. [More]
Airbnb’s New Legal Strategy: Compliance With Local Laws Is Not Our Problem
By 10.6.16
When you buy a bootleg T-shirt on eBay or some phony concert tickets on StubHub, those businesses aren’t responsible: the seller is. What if that principle also applied to sharing economy businesses like Airbnb? That’s what the company is experimenting with, starting in its home city of San Francisco. [More]
Some Airlines Now Rewarding Passengers For Using Airbnb
By 10.5.16
It’s not uncommon for an airline to partner with hotel chains to earn and/or use rewards points, but now some carriers are looking at the growing sharing economy and seeing potential for rewards partnerships. [More]
Airbnb Inches Closer To Full-Service Trip-Planner With Latest Acquisition
By 9.19.16
Airbnb has had success in providing a platform for travelers looking to stay somewhere other than hotels, but lodging is only one aspect of a trip. Where to eat? What to see? Airbnb’s recent acquisition of a startup travel-planning service shows that the company is inching toward offering one-stop shopping for travelers. [More]
Airbnb Updates Rental Policy In Effort To Fight Discrimination By Hosts
By 9.8.16
In an effort to ensure that anyone who wants to rent a place to stay through Airbnb can do so without fear of being rejected based on their race, religion, gender, ethnicity, age, or disability, the company has updated its short-term rental policy to add some new anti-discrimination measures. [More]
Airbnb Says City’s Ban On Short-Term Rentals Violates Federal Law, Constitution
By 9.6.16
In May 2015, the California city of Santa Monica — the one with the famous pier that’s in just about every beach movie ever made — revised its laws to effectively bar most Airbnb rentals. Now the online home-sharing platform is accusing the city of violating the Constitution and multiple federal laws. [More]
Airbnb Hosts Having Difficulty Refinancing Homes
By 8.30.16
Until recently, home loans generally covered two types of properties: primary residences or investments. That was before services like Airbnb allowed anyone with an extra room to make a bit of extra money by renting it out for short periods of time. This blurred line between “my house” and “my investment” is causing trouble for some homeowners when they go to refinance their mortgages. [More]
Airbnb Working On “Tour Guide” App That Provides Recommendations For Things To Do
By 8.16.16
Nearly five months ago, Airbnb declared it wanted to offer users more than just a way to connect homeowners with people looking for a place to stay. Now the company reveals it is testing an app that provides travelers with information about nearby restaurants, available tours, happy hours, festivals, and other things to do during their visit. [More]
Homeowner Says Airbnb Guest Did $25K In Water Damage, May Have Shot Porn In Her House
By 8.10.16
We’re not saying this is the way things should be, but it’s the way things are: If you’re going to use Airbnb or some other service to rent out your house like a hotel, you need to know there’s a chance that the people you let stay in your home while you’re away might also see it as nothing more than a hotel room they can mess up and leave behind. [More]
NYC Couple Says Airbnb Renter Stole $5K Worth Of Stuff From Their Apartment
By 8.9.16
There are the kinds of bad houseguests who maybe leave their wet towel on the ground or put an empty milk container back in the refrigerator, and then there are the folks who leave your home a bit emptier than they found it. A New York City couple found themselves facing the latter situation, claiming that an Airbnb renter boosted a bunch of their belongings. [More]
New Airbnb Project Seeks To Boost Small Town Tourism
By 8.3.16
Airbnb is moving beyond assisting homeowners in renting out their properties, and is expanding into small town tourism with a new initiative that’s aimed at inventing new projects to draw in more hosts and renters in smaller, less-traveled communities.
[More]
Here’s How Airbnb Uses The Data It Collects In Every Part Of The Company
By 8.1.16
Websites collect information about the people who use them, and the people who end up not using them. If you’ve even visited the website of Airbnb, the company has used your data to improve its offerings or its site in some way. [More]
