What's wrong with CA? It seems to me that state tries it bests to kick innovation out, and start another tech ecosystem somewhere else...
If impersonating is the reason they couldn't have just regulated a requirement to clearly list if the ad is by the owner or a third party, and not throw away the baby...
First, screening your guest is a task that takes time and effort as well. We are offering to reduce the work needed for the really low price of 1%.
Moreover, it's not just guest support, but you can also accept new guests while on vacation, allowing even back to back guests. It's almost turn-key service.
I can definitely relate. Had been using Airbnb around the world a lot. This is why we put a strong emphasis towards quality of service. As a paid service we know that if we do badly you won't hire us again. We do our best as if it was our own listing. We give fast an accurate response, and we are always there for more clarifications. And our guests love us, so we must be doing it right. You can read in our website some of our testimonials.
For most of the cases, answers can be found in the listing, and guests are looking for clarification or confirmation. As we do get access for the listing, we can learn a lot from your previous responses and repeat that in future scenarios. Also, as we are experienced hosts we understand Airbnb platform better so we can give answers to problems people face with.
Lastly, you are right, some of the questions cannot be answered by us, those are a fraction of the inquires and we give you, the host, the option to not let those interrupt you in your vacation. If you do want us to send you important questions we will. Think about us as a personal receptionist desk.
Just a reminder- Mark Zuck. was founder, but also CTO, CEO and what not at the age of 21, and of an almost billion $ company in the age of 23. Grow up, the world belongs to the young!
Sometimes legal litigation forces companies to take extra measures and describing the obvious is something that already was tested in court. You feel that's obvious because you understand the tech behind it but some users (maybe the less educated ones) don't understand this, and then they sue apple for shorter than published battery life. By forcing you to include this label in your terms it releases legal responsibility.
If impersonating is the reason they couldn't have just regulated a requirement to clearly list if the ad is by the owner or a third party, and not throw away the baby...