A report from Geek Wire on Washington. "Loftium, the Seattle real estate startup that helped people buy homes in exchange for renting out an extra room on Airbnb, has shifted its focus to rentals. 'Given how quickly home prices have risen, we realized that a large portion of our customer base were not able to buy a home even with Loftium’s down payment assistance, and that was a very frustrating part of the business,' said CEO Yifan Zhang."

The Jersey Journal on New Jersey. "There was a time when short-term rentals went something like this: To help offset the cost of a two-week vacation, Couple A would seek out people who wanted to vacation in their town. They’d then rent their home or apartment to Couple B for the time they were off on their dream trip."

"Airbnb contends that the proposed ordinance goes too far and would, as the saying goes, throw the baby out with the bathwater. Downtown Councilman James Solomon disagrees, saying 'thousands of units' are being taken up by 'developers and corporations' rather than local residents looking to earn some money while away."

From NBC DFW in Texas. "After years of debate, the Arlington City Council hopes to make a final decision on the future of short-term rentals. Kari Garcia said her two children have witnessed fist fights and public urination outside the house where she said prom and bachelor parties are being held."

"'I live across the street from a 4,000 square foot short term rental that’s listed in Airbnb to seat 15 guests and I live in a very quiet neighborhood,' she said. '[There is] a constant group of strangers — not neighbors in that house every night.'"

From US News & World Report. "Airbnb argues that it provides an economic equalizer, helping even hosts of few means to boost incomes and manage otherwise unaffordable housing costs. Yet a growing army of critics allege that, in dozens of cities around the world, the proxy hotel service more often does the opposite."

"Breonne DeDecker, a program manager at Jane Place, a housing rights nonprofit in New Orleans, says Airbnb rentals have displaced so many locals that many traditionally residential districts ‒ including in working-class black neighborhoods like the Seventh Ward and Treme ‒ now resemble weekday ghost towns. 'Thursday, Friday and Saturday it's just awash in young white tourists.'"

"Even with rules in place, regulatory agencies are often overwhelmed, and savvy listers find ways to evade requirements: In Miami Beach one property manager was associated with more than $1.2 million in dozens of illegal listing fines; in February investigators in New York exposed a vast, city-wide scheme, orchestrated by an Israeli former real estate broker, that generated $20 million in revenue by using multiple identities, manipulated addresses and proxy corporations to flout city rental laws and the company's 'one host, one home' rule – specific to New York and a handful of other cities."

"As the platform has expanded beyond homeowners with a spare room to profit-minded investors who buy and then rent entire homes, it's also put a new squeeze on housing markets. Particularly for renters in high-demand cities, Airbnb can increasingly feel like a kind of digital grim reaper: In Toronto the platform has eliminated some 6,500 homes from the city's badly pinched housing market, according to a recent report from the coalition group Fairbnb."

From CBC News in Canada. "Sporting a crisp button-up shirt in his profile photo, smiling Airbnb host 'Alejandro' states he's been around the world and thus understands other travellers 'much better.'"

"The profile pic for 'Mike' shows him bearded, grinning, and relaxing to whatever's playing on his iPhone – remarkably chill for someone who runs 61 listings on Airbnb and has hosted more than 7,900 stays. 'Aj' organizes bachelor party trips when he's not managing his 90-plus Airbnb listings."

"They are all among Canada's most prolific Airbnb hosts, according to a CBC News tally of 32,000 entire apartment, condo and house listings that appeared on the popular accommodation-booking website in 16 major cities in the country. Its biggest players in Canada are actually — and sometimes secretly — multimillion-dollar for-profit corporations, a CBC News data analysis found."

"'Most of what's happening on Airbnb isn't home-sharing,' said McGill University urban planning professor David Wachsmuth, who has studied the company for several years. 'Instead, it's something much more like commercial short-term rental operations.'"

"It turns out Alejandro had help. An internet image-matching search using his profile photo shows he was actually a paid employee, described as an 'Airbnb specialist,' for Montreal-based Corporate Stays, a multimillion-dollar company."

The West Australian. "The Augusta-Margaret River region was packed over the Easter weekend, but a glut of unregistered short-stay homes left many of the region’s accommodation providers short of their usual peak-season highs. There are now more than 1000 active listings in the Shire according to data and analysis site AirDNA — nearly 15 per cent of total private dwellings in the area."

"Over the Easter long weekend, more than 99 per cent of those houses were booked, but vacancy signs were up at most registered providers. Registered Accommodation Providers Margaret River spokeswoman Debbie Noonan said the oversupply of short-stay accommodation was crippling professional tourism operators and choking up the town’s infrastructure."

"'Easter overall was busy for the two days in the middle, but otherwise most properties had vacancies, which is definitely not normal,' she said."

The Australian Financial Review. "The race to make more money on short-term Airbnb rentals, along with a glut of apartments hitting the inner-city areas of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, has led to an oversupply of Airbnb units, and crimped the supply of rental homes for local residents."

"An oversupply of Airbnb units in metro Melbourne means one in four one- and two-bedroom apartments are vacant. For bigger units it's worse, with 50 per cent of three- and four-bedroom units vacant, property investor Yan Davies' real estate agent LongView Real Estate says, using data from Airdna."

"'Most investors and landlords assume that an Airbnb works best if it’s a small apartment located in the city. Whilst this is true in some cases, unfortunately, a lot of these Airbnbs are making the same return as those in traditional rent,' she said."

"'This is partly due to the oversupply of small apartments located in CBDs on Airbnb,' LongView co-founder Evan Thornley, who counselled Ms Davies to stay away from Airbnb, said."