airbnb - Page 4

“Millennials” are suddenly realizing that government is something other than “the name we give to the things we choose to do together,” as former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said. On the contrary, government is often the name we give to what one group of people does to another group by force of law.

In response to San Francisco’s new vacation-rental law to allow unlimited short-term rentals when a host is present, a powerful group of unions, landlords, housing activists and traditional hotels are preparing a November ballot initiative to severely constrict Airbnb and other “sharing economy” companies’ ability to help individuals secure short–term rentals from part or all of their homes or apartments.

For California cities and counties, Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) for short-term hotel rentals rose from $1.38 billion in 2010 to $1.67 billion in 2012. Collection of the 13 percent average tax on short-term occupancies would have been much higher, except that Airbnb online rentals has never collected a dime. Now, State Senator Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) os pushing Senate Bill 593 legislation to require “online vacation rental sites” to collect TOT and report big data–such as number of guests or length of stay– to cities and counties. And Airbnb and hosts are warning about consumer privacy.

Ashton Kutcher took on the character of Steve Jobs for a Hollywood movie, but he also channeled Steve Jobs’s life and has made about $100 million in early-stage technology investments through his venture capital fund, called A-Grade Investments.