What a bland article. Just when it starts to become insightful, it ends:
These events are all signs of a gig economy that might just be falling apart, not because of any one CEO decision but because companies that find success by framing themselves as a DIY alternative to an established industry can only grow in the same direction as the very thing they wanted to replace. The original sin, it seems, is when they try to be both.
High fees, inconsistent/false advertising, burdensome chores? When was this article written, 2017? This has been the state of Airbnb for half its lifetime. There was a year, maybe two, at the very beginning where it truly was “crashing at your friend’s place”, in the same way Uber was “getting a ride from a friend”. Both have become full time corporate institutions with wage slaves pushing a product that’s somehow worse than the original problem (generally due to the lack of regulations around these “gig economy” alternatives), at the detriment of communities and others who attempted to make a living “playing by the rules”.
At this point, if you’re using Airbnb, not only are you impossibly ignorant of the problem, you’re actively contributing to it.