@Fred
I must confess it had to take lecture from Host charging circa $500 a night even if their neighbours are charging thousands of Dollars more and when their fixed and variable costs are minuscule compared to their turnover so let get back to the real world.
I never used emotive language like "evil" so stop putting your words in my mouth.
I ask Airbnb to lower their fee's and radically improve their smart pricing algorithm.
In addition to this they could weed out a considerable number of Hosts that have no entitlement to sublet the apartments they rent, and are doing so without the landlord's consent, endangering their guests, and obviously not paying any income tax to boot, this must be distorting the market and driving down prices. I don't hold with this notion there doing it to pay the rent, there doing to improve their disposable income like everybody else except their doing under the counter and of course can charge less, sure after all the landlord can pick up the cost of wear and tear.
My last guest who is doing extracurricular activity at weekend uses Airbnb regular he told me, and I quote "of the last seven Airbnb places I've stayed in, five of them were not clean" which does not surprise me in the least considering the following,
What goes on over hear is one set of friends let out their apartment and stay with another set of friends and then they split the profit between themselves so there earning income off assets they don't own or maintain and without consent of their landlords, mind you I can't see that happening on a mini island in Belize where everybody knows everybody else's business.
Fred this is tough love, I like Airbnb system its efficient in so many ways, but it has considerable short comings that need to be addressed so every host can enjoy the bountiful harvest you enjoy long may it last.
Regards
Cormac