The New York Times set its story about Airbnb's evovling business model in Denver. North Park Hill's Jill Bishop serves as the perfect anecdote for a piece about how the profile of renters has changed as the company has sharpened the services it offers.
The piece starts like this:
"For nine years, Jill Bishop enjoyed the camaraderie of renting out her spare bedroom on Airbnb.Guests hung out on her comfy sofas. They dined together. They shared her bathroom, which was filled with half-empty shampoo bottles and an array of lotions.
Then, things changed.
Airbnb urged Ms. Bishop to
make the bathroom look more like a hotel. New local regulations governing Airbnb meant she had to start collecting city lodging taxes, which made her feel awkward when she had to ask guests for money. And Airbnb began conditioning her to host people who are just looking for a place to sleep — not a home to share."
You can read the rest
here.
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