But it’s not ratting on your neighbors. They’re not your neighbors anymore when they moved away from your neighborhood and rented their place out to people from outside your neighborhood who are not going to stay long enough to be your neighbors either. You no longer have neighbors in that home.

> I feel like the whole "rat on your neighbors for money" thing has a lot of negative unintended consequences.

1) If they are running an AirBnB, they're not your neighbor. They just own (or rent) property close to you.

2) There are a lot of negative unintended consequences to you because the unit was rented out. Why should you be expected to bear those costs and silently suffer when you can end it?

It absolutely would. But who's to say it was your neighbor instead of a random person in the city who's looking for a quick buck and knows AirB&B is illegal in the city?

This good samaritan compensation model works well in New York to catch illicitly idling commercial vehicles. How are illicit short term rentals significantly different?

Negative unintended consequences to the illegal AirBnB on my street was having my car shot up. Some of the bullets also hit the neighbors car parked in front of my bedroom window.

You can already do this with the IRS and receive 15% to 30% of what is owed[1].

[1] https://www.irs.gov/compliance/whistleblower-office

Yeah I imagine it could be the new swatting. Don't like your neighbors (as in, your actual neighbors, who aren't running an illegal hotel)? Anonymously report that there's an AirBnB in their property, and watch as the cops show up and tell your neighbors to pack their bags and find a real hotel.