Venturing deeper into the "dark side" of hospitality, they said.

The hotel industry has been dazed, confused, and overall fragmented about the impact of Airbnb on their business.  On one hand, you have hotels citing they are disadvantaged and their unions accusing Airbnb of creating a reduction in hotel jobs.  On the other, you have a few top tier hotel chains that claim Airbnb is not a threat, including a VP that hasn't even heard of Airbnb's existence.
Seriously?  I'm sure that VP has been educated in recent weeks.

These days it seems the hotel resistance is beginning to take on a new cohesive shape.  Tnooz reports of the American Hotel & Lodging Association mobilizing its 52,000 members to battle against the evil doings of short term rental companies and websites like Airbnb.  A brief snippet of their objective:

Together with our partner states, identifying target cities and localities where we can engage in select tax, safety, and health fights at the council level to pre-empt other deals being sought by short-term online rental companies.

Maybe Brian Chesky's "fuck hotels" frontback pic may have been the straw that broke the camel's back.

As tensions continue to mount between Airbnb and the hotel industry, I've experienced an increase in light-hearted trash talking from my fellow Cornell hotel school grads who are always so quick to point out my first crossover to the dark side with Expedia, and now ever darker having recently joined Airbnb.

I still love the majesty and cultural richness of many hotels, and I believe that the basic principles of hospitality remain a strong common denominator between hotels and Airbnb.  But perhaps that's a bit too philosophical for most executives when it comes down to market share and financial statements.

From my point of view, it's not at all dark on this side.  In fact, the future is really bright thanks to visionary leaders like Brian who want to create Shared Cities all over the world, "rogue" hoteliers like the legendary Chip Conley who inspired me a decade ago to pursue hospitality as a career, and a deeply passionate and energetic Airbnb team working together with so much love for what they are doing.

I may have to kiss my Cornell Hotel Society hopes goodbye, but helping build Airbnb's vision to create shared cities and provide travelers uniquely local experiences is going to be oh so much sweeter.  :-)