A report from the New York Daily News. "A social media spat and an Airbnb-friendly bill being considered in the state capital brought renewed attention to the big bucks the home-sharing site dropped on an upstate Senate race. Critics from across the political spectrum are raising questions about the nearly $500,000 the company’s campaign arm, Stronger Neighbors PAC, spent in support of state Sen. James Skoufis (D-Orange County) last year. Skoufis is the sponsor of a piece of legislation that would legalize and regulate home-sharing in the city and across the state."

"'This is a bad bill that puts tenants in harm’s way while paving the way for the loss of affordable housing,' said Mike McKee, the treasurer of the progressive advocacy group Tenants PAC. 'No amount of campaign spending should be worth selling out housing protections or going back on your own word to clean up Albany’s pay-to-play culture.'"

"Records show that last year Airbnb spent more than twice as much on Skoufis than all the other candidates it backed combined. The company’s PAC dropped $498,273 on TV, radio, digital and print ads in support of Skoufis. The group only spent $224,000 on four other candidates combined."

From The Gothamist in New York. "In what appears to be a gross exploitation of the home-sharing industry, a Brooklyn landlord with a history of violations has been renovating apartments into luxurious Airbnb rentals while allowing rent-stabilized units to languish in neglect for decades, according to a new lawsuit."

"A group of ten rent-stabilized tenants filed a legal complaint in Kings County Supreme Court against a family of building owners led by Miriam Shasho. In addition to a litany of harassment and housing violations, the tenants charged the Shashos with running an illegal Airbnb scheme out of three buildings in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, constructing units with separate heating and cooling systems and advertising the newly renovated units on Airbnb as 'paradise and luxury in a beautiful flat.'"

"The case substantiates one of the sharpest criticisms against Airbnb and other home-sharing platforms: that it incentivizes greedy landlords to harass and force out rent-stabilized tenants to make room for illegal hotel schemes. 'He pours all of these resources into Airbnbs,' said Catherine Frizell, a housing attorney at Brooklyn Legal Services’ Tenant Rights Coalition who worked on the lawsuit. 'Meanwhile his tenants have rodent infestations and are not being provided with heat and hot water. It’s dehumanizing, and it has to stop.'"

The Florida Phoenix. "Jennifer Riley has lived for the past four years in a residential area a few blocks away from the water in Indian Rocks Beach in Pinellas County. She’s been dealing with short-term renters in the neighborhood who play loud music, party deep into the wee hours of the morning, and even threaten her."

"'I had one guy. It was after 10 p.m. and we called the police and so he came over, and he looked at my boyfriend and he said, ‘You know what the bad thing is? I know where you live. You don’t know where I live,' Riley recalls."

"The owner of the rental in question is an absentee landlord living mostly in Pennsylvania. He told her he intended to use the house as his own vacation home and visit whenever he could. 'A total lie,' Riley says."

"In 2010, the city of Miami Beach banned property owners from renting a short-term rental (defined as less than six months and a day) unless it was in a legally permissible zone, such as in South Beach. Violators are subjected to a $20,000 fine, with the fine going up in $20,000 increments for every subsequent time they are caught."

"That rankles Natalie Nichols, who is legally challenging the city’s laws on rentals and has placed a petition on change.org calling for support to reinstate the right to rent short-term property in Miami Beach. 'They don’t want second-home owners and investors in a town that is 80 percent second-home owners and investors,' she says. 'I just don’t get it.'"

The Idaho Statesman. "When Brittany O’Meara first moved into a one-bedroom townhouse with her boyfriend, her neighboring units were filled with renters. Then, slowly, she started to notice that as neighbors moved out, her landlord wasn’t finding more tenants. Instead, one by one, he converted the townhouses into short-term lodging through Airbnb."

"In the last two years, nearly half of the 12 townhouses have become Airbnbs, she said. 'We’re in constant fear that our landlord will turn our unit into an Airbnb,' she said."

"With so many landlords tempted, the market has become so saturated with short-term rentals that Airbnb hosts say their revenue is decreasing. Some property managers said they have had to cut prices to compete. Outside investors are looking to locals for advice on how to get into Airbnb-ing in Boise. Aaron Catt, a Realtor and property manager, runs 15 Airbnbs around Boise for owners who don’t want to be involved in day-to-day operations. But he’s also become a consultant to investors looking to buy homes in Boise to list on Airbnb.Catt said he gets two to five inquiries each week for just that."

"He has seen revenues fall in the last year as the inventory of Airbnb rentals has increased — but said that properties in the right location still can deliver impressive profits. 'You had better have a super-dynamic plan to operate as an Airbnb or you would make less money than a long-term rental,' he said."

"Lori Dicaire, a local renters advocate, is calling for the city to regulate Airbnb the way it has ride-sharing scooter companies. 'Before a single scooter hit the streets, the City Council hammered out a 15-page ordinance that regulated every aspect,' she said. 'The city has yet to create one single rule around Airbnb.'"

"O’Meara, the Bench townhouse tenant, has become more careful to lock her doors before she goes to bed at night and shut her windows when she leaves for the day. She can’t rely on neighbors to look out for her anymore. 'Before, we knew our neighbors,' she said. 'Now we have no relationship or sense of community with the people we live next to.'"