> As a tourist, there's no reason I should have to provide an inordinate level of support to the regional regulators. I'm happy to pay sales tax like everyone else, and the costs of property and utility taxes are already built into the cost of my stay.
I support our local infrastructure via my income tax as well as my property taxes in addition to my sales tax. You don't pay income tax, so you are charged the latter.
> Residences already have to obey regional safety and fire code.
They obey basic building codes. They may not have working smoke detectors or fire extinguishers. Secondary exits may easily be blocked by storage, furniture, etc.
> That's true, but you're already paying for that in an AirBnB, because as I said, it also has to follow regional fire code.
Nope, it doesn't. AirBnB rentals are unregulated and have none of the fire safety mechanisms or inspections of licensed hotels.
> You seem to be under the false but unfortunately common impression that all, or even the majority, of regulations have anything to do with improving consumer safety.
You seem to be under the incorrect assumption that these regulations weren't implemented specifically because hundreds of folks in the 70s were killed in hotel fires because they were unregulated.
> The false premise here is that residential building code is not already "up to speed".
A building code that a structure was built to decades before has less bearing on how safe that dwelling is today without smoke detectors, working fire extinguishers, marked exits, available secondary exits, etc than you seem to think it does.
Remember, just because you're responsible and have a working smoke detector, CO detector, and fire extinguisher as well as secondary exits that are easily accessible doesn't have any bearing on the random stranger you rent from on AirBnB. They may just not care and you'll be none the wiser.
