I'm not clear why AirBnb isn't passing through the taxes. I know their system supports it. We recently rented from AirBnB in Portland Oregon and we paid an extra $65 in "Occupancy Taxes" on a $521 stay.
That is a Portland specific thing. AirBnB is now negotiating city by city tax handling, they just worked something out with SF recently. It doesn't sound very scalable, but now that AirBnB is the incumbent, it's a barrier to entry for anyone that tries to disrupt them.
Funny how that works, exploit a loophole in a law, and when you get big enough, then make it way more expensive for everyone else to come in after you and cite it as a competitive advantage.
They can't do the same with NYC because the entire premise of AirBnB is illegal in NYC unless specific conditions are met. Since 72% of listings are technically illegal, there is no way they would shed 72% of listings just to make the remaining 28% tax compliant. This is why many view them negatively -- they blatantly facilitate illegal transactions. The fact that they are doing tax deals with other cities only underscores that they clearly know their users are violating NYC law.
