lawlessness? Crime has declined sharply from our ‘prime’ decades, the 80s and 90s. The problem isn’t that we don’t have enough police, the problem is an extreme wealth divide and a government that is uninterested in investing in the future.

Vacation rental hospitality service is nearly impossible to scale. It’s insanely fragmented, there are just too many particularities between customers, properties, and hosts.

Airbnb has been able to scale because they are a marketing platform, not a hospitality service. They are there to connect you with a host. It is no surprise that they would offer minimal customer service to manage the relationship beyond facilitating the initial connection. It is also no surprise that they would tend to side with the host in any dispute. That’s their customer, that’s their money, and having a large inventory of hosts is exactly what draws consumers in. If you leave, it does little to impact their business. If hosts leave, there isn’t a business.