Op-ed: This is why people hate Airbnb

OMG no way. (credit: CNBC)

In the wake of New Year's weekend, the news seemed inevitable. Some high school kids faked their identities on Airbnb, rented a nice couple's house in Oakland, California, and absolutely trashed the place during a giant party. It was yet another dark tale about the company, which seems poised to overtake Uber in the contest to become the most successful service that generates reams of bad publicity.

Objectively speaking, Airbnb's business is booming. Valued at $25.5 billion, it raised $1.5 billion in investments over the summer, followed by another $100 million in November. In March of last year, the company's future prospects brightened considerably when the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that online travel companies like Airbnb are not responsible for paying hotel occupancy taxes. In May, the company reported that it had almost a million guests per night. And yet its public image keeps taking a beating.

Some of Airbnb's troubles began when the company decided to intervene in San Francisco municipal politics. In October, Airbnb spent $8 million to post what many observers called "passive aggressive" ads in bus shelters all over San Francisco. "Dear Public Library System," one read. "We hope you use some of the $12 million in hotel taxes to keep the library open later. Love, Airbnb." Read another: "Dear Public Works, Please use some of the $12 million in hotel taxes to install more electric vehicle charging stations. Love, Airbnb." The references were to Airbnb caving to pressure from San Francisco to charge a 14 percent hotel tax to its guests (the same tax that people pay at San Francisco hotels). But the goal of the campaign was to defeat Proposition F, which would have made it unlawful for people to rent out their properties for more than 75 days consecutively per year. Dubbed "the Airbnb law," F was eventually defeated. But even people who thought F was a bad idea were still revolted by the tone-deaf propaganda campaign, which portrayed Airbnb as some kind of do-gooder pal of local city government when in fact they'd fought to avoid paying municipal taxes.

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