Airbnb-Ethical-Implications
The Airbnb business model consists of a peer-to-peer exchange of services where transactions and responsibilities are carried out exclusively by hosts and guests, limiting Airbnb’s liability entirely. Sharing economy platforms like Airbnb are relatively new, and due to imperfect information and lack of knowledge, they are not yet regulated properly.
The weakness of current regulations has allowed Airbnb to impact business, government, and society in several ways. The three key problems analyzed in this paper using real world case studies include overall disruption of residential neighborhoods, rising rent gaps, and hotels along with other large entities using Airbnb to evade taxes. Therefore, we believe Airbnb should be subject to more regulation to mitigate its negative business, societal, and governmental impacts. Moreover, this poses an ethical dilemma of whether Airbnb should be regulating themselves to help suppress the problems that have arisen. Throughout the paper, different behavioral finance terminology, financial ethics dilemmas, and outside coursework reading will be evaluated in the context of Airbnb to further the point that Airbnb should be subject to greater regulations.
