Airbnb: Turning Homes Into Hotels, Guests Into Maids, and Cities Into Housing Deserts.

Ten years ago, Airbnb was the quirky, charming way to travel: crash in a spare room, meet a local, and actually experience a city. Today? It’s 63% corporate landlord machine, with a platform turning our neighbourhoods into full-time hotel inventory, where you get the distinct privilege of paying a $250 cleaning fee just to wash your own coffee mugs (InsideAirbnb, 2026).

Now Airbnb is changing its rules around outrageous cleaning fees, and the host backlash has been spectacular. Apparently, asking a business to disclose the full cost upfront that’s their responsibility is an act on their Rights and Freedoms. And let's not forget: guests have been doing half the host's job all along. Stripping beds, washing dishes, taking out garbage, and following a checkout checklist longer than a municipal development application.

The public has spent years watching cities lose housing to short-term rentals, rents skyrocket, and homelessness grow. The public isn't angry because Airbnb changed its rules. They're angry because Airbnb and its corporate hosts have spent a decade turning housing into a speculative hospitality business, and now they're upset that those same "hosts" have started complaining.

We're in a housing crisis. It's time to stop treating these businesses like adorable little side hustles and start regulating and inspecting them like the commercial enterprises they've become. If you want to run a hotel, congratulations. Get a legitimate hotel licence in the appropriate area. And maybe clean your own damn apartment.