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Airbnb started in 2008 to facilitate a quintessential digital-age side hustle: Users renting out their homes for a weekend or two to secure the next month's mortgage payment. But it soon became a gateway for creating real estate empires, turning neighborhoods into tourist zones and mom-and-pops into wannabe J.W. Marriotts -- and upending entire housing and rental markets in the process.
Now the industry starts a new chapter: Workers are increasingly being ordered back to their offices. Meanwhile, cities and municipalities are passing sweeping laws to clamp down on your average multi-property owning mavens. Airbnb's most recent earnings report included a less-than-rosy outlook for the rest of the year, and the company has launched a suite of new features that suggest it realizes it's no longer the no-brainer cheaper alternative to traditional hotels it once was.
Source Fool.com